Multiple-input multiple-output (mimo) communication system

ABSTRACT

A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) capable system is contemplated. The communication system may include a signal processor configured to separate an input stream into multiple signal paths to facilitate simultaneous transport through a communication medium. The capability to simultaneously transmit multiples signal paths may be beneficial in order to maximize throughput and/or minimize expense.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the U.S. national phase of PCT internationalapplication number PCT/US2014/016647 filed Feb. 16, 2014, which claimspriority to U.S. application Ser. No. 13/769,288, filed Feb. 16, 2013and U.S. provisional application No. 61/845,340 filed Jul. 11, 2013, thedisclosures and benefits of which are hereby incorporated in theirentirety by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to communication systems and signalprocessors, such as but not necessarily limited to those capable offacilitating multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) or multipathcommunications.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communications systems may employ multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) techniques to facilitate multipathcommunications. The multipath capabilities of MIMO systems allow data tobe transmitted simultaneously over multiple paths between a plurality oftransmitting devices and a plurality of receiving devices to effectivelyincrease capacity over single path systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communicationsystem in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 2 a-2 b schematically illustrate operation of the communicationsystem when facilitating a wireline signaling mode in accordance withone non-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a frequency selection map in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIGS. 4 a-4 b schematically illustrate operation of the communicationsystem when facilitating a wireless signaling mode in accordance withone non-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 5 a-5 b schematically illustrates operation of the communicationsystem when facilitating wireless signaling having enhanced spatialdiversity in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 a-6 b schematically illustrates operation of the communicationsystem when facilitating wireless signaling having enhanced spatialdiversity in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a signal processor as configured to facilitatesignaling in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a signal processor as configured to facilitatesignaling in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a signal processor as configured to facilitatesignaling in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of a method for transporting signals inaccordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates a diagram showing spatial diversity as contemplatedby one non-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a signalprocessor to facilitate wireless signaling in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates a remote antenna unit accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a remoteantenna unit to facilitate wireless signaling in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 15 illustrates a user equipment (UE) in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 16 illustrates a user equipment (UE) in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 17 illustrates a user equipment (UE) in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 18 illustrates a user equipment (UE) in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 19 illustrates a user equipment (UE) in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 20 illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a userequipment (UE) in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosedherein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodimentsare merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in variousand alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; somefeatures may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particularcomponents. Therefore, specific structural and functional detailsdisclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as arepresentative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variouslyemploy the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communicationsystem 10 in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention. The system 10 may be configured to facilitate electronicsignaling between a signal processor 12 and one or more end stations(ES), user equipment (UE), access points (APs), terminals or otherdevices. The signal processor 12 may be configured to facilitatetransport of virtually any type of signaling, including signalingassociated with a multiple system operator (MSO), such as but notnecessarily limited to a cable, satellite, or broadcast televisionservice provider, a cellular service provider, and high-speed dataservice provider, an Internet service provider (ISP), etc. Thecommunication system 10 is illustrated with respect to the signalprocessor 12 supporting a first feed 14, a second feed 16, a third feed18 (representing seven independent feeds), although more or less feedsmay be received for transport. Each feed 14, 16, 18 may include datacommunicated to the signal processor 12 from a local or remote sourcingdevice/entity as a baseband or other suitable signal. Each feed may beprocessed for transport with the signal processor 12, optionally withthe signal processor 12 comprising separate or independent signalprocessors for each feed. The first and second feeds 14, 16 may beassociated with cellular related signaling (e.g., signaling associatedwith a cellular phone call) and the third feed 18 may be associated withcable related signaling (e.g., signaling associated with delivery of atelevision program and/or Internet data download). A master controller20 may be included as a standalone component and/or integrated into oneof the illustrated components in order to facilitate the operationscontemplated herein.

The end stations ES correspond with any electronically operable devicehaving capabilities sufficient to facilitate directly or indirectlyinterfacing a user with signaling transported through the communicationsystem 10. The end stations ES may be a gateway, a router, a computer, amobile phone, a cellular phone, a media terminal adapter (MTA), a voiceover Internet protocol (VoIP) enabled device, a television, a set topbox (STB), network address translator (NAT), etc. For exemplarynon-limiting purposes, a first end station 22 is shown to be a wirelinetype of device, such as a home gateway or set-top box configured tooutput signaling to a television or other device through a wirelessand/or wired connection, and a second end station 24 is shown to be awireless type of device, such as a remote antenna unit, wirelesscomputer, television or cellular phone, optionally having capabilitiessufficient to interface signaling using a wireless and/or a wiredconnection. The use of such first and second end stations 22, 24 may bebeneficial in facilitating continued access to a television programwhile a user travels between locations associated with the first andsecond ends stations 22, 24. Seamless access to the content may beprovided in this manner using different ends stations or capabilities ofthe end stations, e.g., a wireless capability of the second end station24 may be used when at one location and a wireline capability of thefirst end station 22 may be used when at another location.

The present invention contemplates distinguishing between wireless andwireline communications. The wireline communications may correspond withany type of electronic signal exchange where a wire, a coaxial cable, afiber or other bound medium is used to facilitate or otherwise direct atleast a portion of the related signaling, including the signalingexchanged outside of the communicating device/processor. The wirelinecommunications include but are not necessarily limited to those carriedat least partially over a fiber/cable backbone associated with a cabletelevision distribution system or an Internet or non-Internet based datacommunication system. The wireless communications may correspond withany type of electronic signal exchange where an antenna, antenna port orother transmitting type of device is used to communicate at least aportion of the signaling as radio frequency (RF) signals, such as over awireless link or through an unbound or air medium, optionally in themanner described in U.S. patent application serial number. The wirelesscommunications include but are not necessary limited to satellitecommunications, cellular communications and Wi-Fi communications. Theuse of wireline and wireless communications and the correspondingmediums are not intended to limit the present invention to anyparticular type of medium, protocol, or standard and is instead noted todifferentiate between two types of communications, e.g., bound andunbound.

The signaling desired for transports through the communication system 10may be received at a headend unit 30 associated with the signalprocessor 12 and thereafter carried by one or more fibers to a fibernode 32. The fiber node 32 may be part of a cable televisiondistribution system 34 from which a plurality of coaxial cables mayfacilitate further delivery to different geographical areas, optionallywith use of splitters and/or amplifiers. The coaxial cables are shown toinclude a plurality of taps (shown as rectangles) through which variousend stations ES may be connected to receive the wireline signalingand/or other signaling associated with the headend, e.g., signalingassociated with other types of content and/or data transmissions. Thefirst end station 22 is shown to be connected to one of the taps tofacilitate interfacing transported signals to a locally connected, firstuser equipment (UE) 38. Using LTE over HFC, communications between endstation 22 and UE 38 can take place through the signal processor 12 butnot directly. Communications between end station 22 and UE 38 can takeplace directly if other means of communications are used such as WiFi orMoCA or Ethernet. Communications between end station 22 and UE 38 canalso take place using LTE over HFC but over a separate system where endstation 22 also has signal processor functionality and the UE 38functions as an end station of this local “home LTE over HFC network”.The first end station 22 may be configured to facilitate processing offrequency diverse signals for wireline and/or wireless communication tothe UE 38, which is shown to be a television but could be any other typeof device, such as a mobile phone, tablet, etc. having capabilitiessufficient to access television or data signaling using one or both of awired and wireless connection. The first end station 22 may beconfigured to facilitate interfacing transported signals with the firstUE 38 by converting frequency diverse signaling to an output signalingstream usable by the UE 38.

A third end station 40 is shown to be configured to facilitatewirelessly signaling with the second end station 24. The third endstation 40 may be configured to convert the frequency diverse signalscarried over the wireline distribution system 34 to spatially diversesignals or other suitable types of RF signals. The third end station 40may be included as part of a Wi-Fi access point, a router, a cellulartower, a base station, etc. The ability of the third end station 40 tooutput wireless signaling may be beneficial if licensing or otherrestrictions limit how the wireless signals can be transmitted from thethird end station 40, e.g., frequency usage restrictions may preventoutput of the frequency diverse signals carried over the distributionsystem 34 to the second end station 24 without being pre-processed bythe third end station 40. The third end station 40 may be configured topre-process the frequency diverse signals carried over the distributionsystem 34 to suitable wireless signals having other frequencycharacteristics licensed for use with the second end station 24.

The third end station 40 may be configured to convert received wirelinesignaling to wireless signaling suitable to any restrictions associatedwith the second end station 24. The third end station 40 may be usefulin allowing a user to access content through different types of devicesand/or to facilitate use of other wireless transmission frequencies andcommunication mediums. The third end station 40 may be configured tofacilitate output of spatially diverse signals according to frequencyranges allocated to an originator of the corresponding signaling stream.The second end station 24 may be a handset, mobile phone or other devicehaving capabilities sufficient to process spatially diverse signaling,such as to facilitate interfacing a cellular phone call with the user(additional processing may be done at the second end station 24 tofacilitate the phone call or other operation desired for the signalingstream). A fourth end station 42 may be configured to facilitatewirelessly interfacing transported signaling with the second end station24, such as to enhance spatial diversity of the interfaced wirelesssignal in the manner described below in more detail.

FIGS. 2 a-2 b schematically illustrate operation of the communicationsystem 10 when facilitating a wireline signaling mode in accordance withone non-limiting aspect of the present invention. The wireline signalingmode corresponds with the signal processor 12 receiving an input signal44, processing the input signal for transmission over at least a portionof the wireline communication medium 34, and the first end station 22processing the transmitted signaling into an output signal 46. Theoutput signal 46 may be subsequently transmitted to the first UE 38 orother device for final use. The signal processor 12 may be configured toreceive the input signal from a base station, eNodeB, signal processoror other processing element desiring to transport signaling over thecommunication system (e.g., one of the feeds 14, 16, 18). The basestation may be associated with an Internet service provider, a cabletelevision sourcing entity, cellular phone provider or other sourcecapable of providing data to the signal processor 12 for transport. Theinput signal 44 may be in the form of a baseband signal, anon-continuous wave (CW) type of signal and/or some othersignaling/streaming sufficient to represent data, e.g. data representedusing binary data bits/bytes and varying voltages or opticalintensities. Optionally, the input signal 44 may be a non-diverse signalat least in that the data is carried within a single stream/signal asopposed to being divided for transmission using frequency diversesignaling and/or spatially diverse signaling.

The communication system 10 may be configured to facilitate transport ofthe input signal 44 (input data, message, video, audio, etc.) from anoriginating address associated with the sourcing entity to a destinationaddress associated with the first UE 38 (or other end station). Thepresent invention contemplates the signal processor 12 being configuredto convert the input signal 44 to an intermediary signal prior toproviding long-haul transport of the intermediary signal over one ormore of the contemplated communication mediums so that the intermediarysignal can be re-processed with another signal processor, such as with asignal processor 48 of the first end station 22 that converts theintermediary signal to the output signal 46. In this manner, the outputsignal 46 may take the same form as the input signal 44 prior to beingprocessed with the first signal processor 12. Optionally, the secondsignal processor 48 may be configured to generate the output signal 46as a different type of signal. The signal 46 as it comes out of signalprocessor 48 may not be frequency or spatially diverse, e.g., signal 46may need another processor like 12 to regenerate back spatial orfrequency diverse signals. This would most likely be to implement a home“LTE over HFC” network that extends from the larger coverage LTE overHFC access network. Another way of extending frequency or spatiallydiverse signals may include using an end station similar to end station40 and converting to spatially or frequency diverse signals without useof a signal processor similar to the processor 48. The second signalprocessor 48 may be configured to assess the signaling capabilities ofthe first UE 38 and to adjust the characteristics of the output signal46 to operate with the capabilities of the first UE 38.

The first signal processor 12 may include a codeword multiplexing device52. The codeword multiplexing device 52 may be configured to multiplexthe input signal 44 into a plurality of signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60. Thecodeword multiplexing device 52 is shown to be configured fornon-limiting purposes to multiplex the input signal 44 into a firstsignal part 54, a second signal part 56, a third signal part 58 and afourth signal part 60. The codeword multiplexer 52 may be configured tofacilitate encoding the signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 in/with codewords inorder to enable additional robustness through addition of parityinformation. The codeword multiplexing device 52 may add extra bits toeach signal part 54, 56, 58, 60 to increase robustness and thecapability to reconstruct the original signal in case bits from one ormore of the signaling parts 54, 56, 58, 60 are lost duringcommunication. In a very benign environment, processing provided by thecodeword multiplexing device 52 may be foregone, however, manyapplications, and in particular in MIMO, may practically require theadditional robustness provided with the codewords. The use of foursignal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 is believed to be beneficial as theparticular implementation contemplates facilitating MIMO operationswhere the split parts correspond to four independent antenna ports. Thecodeword multiplexing device 52 may be configured to divide the inputsignal 44 into each of the signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 such that eachsignal part 54, 56, 58, 60 carries at least a different portion of theinput signal 44.

The signal processor 12 may include a plurality of modulation mappingdevices 62, 64, 66, 68. The modulation mapping devices 62, 64, 66, 68may be configured to format a received one of the first, second, thirdand fourth signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 with respect to a constellationsymbol. The mapping devices 62, 64, 66, 68, for example, may take adigital stream and convert that information into coordinate valuesdefining different constellation symbols. The constellation symbols maycorrespond with a transport mechanism used within the communicationsystem 10 to facilitate scheduling long-haul transmissions over thewireline communication 34, such as the constellation symbols associatedwith the MAP disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/954,079,the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety. In this manner, the modulation mapping devices 62, 64, 66, 68may be configured to facilitate manipulating the data received from thecodeword multiplexer 52 for actual transmission within the system 10.The modulation mapping devices 62, 64, 66, 68 may be configured to mapor otherwise associate the bits/bytes output from the codewordmultiplexer 52 with particular time periods and/or frequencies or othercoordinates associated with transmission through the communicationmedium 34.

The signal processor 12 may include a plurality of orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) processing devices 70, 72, 74, 76 (eventhough OFDM processing devices are included here as an example, othertype of multicarrier or single carrier processing devices may be used).The OFDM processing devices 70, 72, 74, 76 may be configured tofacilitate transmission of the received one of the first, second, thirdand fourth signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 over a plurality of subcarriers.The OFDM processing devices 70, 72, 74, 76 may be configured tofacilitate transmitting each signal part 54, 56, 58, 60 using anindependent one of multiple narrowband subcarriers. The constellationsymbol resulting from the modulation mapping devices 62, 64, 66, 68 maybe used to define a plurality of values to which the particularsubcarriers may be mapped. The use of multiple narrowband subcarriersmay be beneficial in certain radio frequency environments compared to asingle wideband carrier implementation. In principle, wideband carrierscan also be used to carry frequency or spatially diverse information,however, the example of multiple narrowband subcarriers is used based onthe likely environmental characteristics allowing it to provide betterperformance. The OFDM processing devices 70, 72, 74, 76 may beconfigured to translate a theoretical mapping provided by the modulationmapping devices 62, 64, 66, 68 for each signal part 54, 56, 58, 60 intoactual signaling streams (spectrum) having specific parameters that willgovern how the corresponding signals are actually transmitted beyond thesignal processor 12. In this manner, the OFDM processing devices 70, 72,74, 76 may be configured to map binary representations associated withthe modulation mapping devices 62, 64, 66, 68 to the actual spectrum(e.g., signals received by the converter devices 80, 82, 84, 86).

The signal processor 12 may include a plurality of converter devices 80,82, 84, 86. The converter devices 80, 82, 84, 86 may be configured toconvert signaling associated with a received one of the first, second,third and fourth signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 from a received frequencyto a desired output frequency. The converter devices 80, 82, 84, 86 areshown to convert each of the first, second, third and fourth signalparts 54, 56, 58, 60 to a different frequency, which are correspondinglyillustrated as a first frequency (F1), a second frequency (F2), a thirdfrequency (F3) and a fourth frequency (F4). The conversion of eachsignal part 54, 56, 58, 60 output from the codeword multiplexing device52 into a different frequency may be useful in providing frequencydiversity. The frequency diversity enable the simultaneous transmissionof multiple frequency multiplexed signals over medium 34, and therebymay allow more data to be transmitted than multiple spatiallymultiplexed signals over medium 110. Almost ideal or true orthogonalityor diversity may be achieved over the HFC environment while spatialdiversity over the wireless medium is not as efficient.

FIG. 3 illustrates a frequency selection map 90 in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The frequency conversionmap 90 may be used to facilitate selection of the frequency conversionperformed with the signal processor converters 80, 82, 84, 86. Thefrequency selection map 90 may include a plurality of frequencyintervals assigned to facilitate upstream and downstream transmissionswithin the communication medium 34. An additional interval offrequencies may be set aside as a transition boundary between upstreamand downstream related frequencies in order to prevent fall off or otherinterferences between the upstream/downstream frequencies. The mappingtable is shown to include a feed reference (F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7,F8, and F9) within each one of the downstream intervals in order toillustrate certain frequency ranges set aside for particular feeds 14,16, 18. One non-limiting configuration of the communication system 10contemplates nine feeds being simultaneously transported downstreamthrough the communication mediums without interfering with each other.

Each of the potentially supportable feeds 14, 16, 18 may be assigned toa particular one of the intervals depending on a mapping strategy,licensing strategy or other operational requirements. The frequencies ofeach feed 14, 16, 18 may be determined by an originator of thecorresponding input signal 44. The signal processor 12 may identify theoriginator from additional information received with the correspondinginput signal 44 in order to facilitate identifying which portion of themapping table 90 has been allocated to support signal transmissions ofthat originator. A first interval of the downstream frequency spectrumranging from 690-770 MHz has been allocated to support signalingassociated with the originator of the first feed 14. A second intervalthe downstream frequency spectrum ranging from 770-850 MHz has beenallocated support signaling associated with the originator of the secondfeed 16. The corresponding intervals of the downstream frequencyspectrum allocated to the other feeds 18 as shown with reference to oneof the illustrated F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8 and F9 designations.

When processing the first feed 14, the converter devices 80, 82, 84, 86assigned to facilitate conversion of each corresponding signal part 54,56, 58, 60 may be configured to select four different output frequenciesfrom within the corresponding interval of the selection map, i.e.,within 690-770 MHz. The particular frequency selected for each converter80, 82, 84, 86 from within the 690-770 MHz interval may be determined inorder to maximize a center frequency spacing, e.g., the first frequency(F1) may correspond with 710 MHz, the second frequency (F2) maycorrespond with 730 MHz, the third frequency (F3) may correspond with750 MHz and the fourth frequency (F4) may correspond with 770 MHz. Theintervals in the selection map 90 may be tailored to the particularcenter frequency offset in order to facilitate desired frequencyspacing, which for exemplary non-limiting purposes has been selected tocorrespond with 20 MHz. The signal processor 12 may include a separateset of devices to support simultaneous transmission of the second feed16 whereby the corresponding converters may be configured to output thesignal parts associated with the second feed at 790 MHz, 810 MHz, 830MHz and 850 MHz. (The devices used to support the additional feeds arenot shown however they would duplicate the devices illustrated in FIG. 2with additional duplicates optionally being included to supportadditional feeds.)

The signal processor 12 may include a combiner 92 configured to receivethe signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 from the converter devices 80, 82, 84,86 as well as other signal processors as described here or from otherprocessors from other services carried over the CATV networks. Thecombiner 92 may be configured to aggregate the received frequencydiverse signals for transport over the communication medium 34. Thecombiner 92 may be configured to prepare the received first, second,third and fourth signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 for transmission to a lasertransmitter (see optical transmitter/receiver (opt. Tx/Rx) in FIG. 1) tofacilitate subsequent modulation over an optical medium and/or fortransmission directly to a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) or other wiredcommunication medium 34. The laser transmitter may be configured toreceive the signaling (h11, h22, h33, h44) from the combiner 92 as asingle/common input to be subsequently modulated for transport over oneor more of the fibers and/or coax portions of the communication medium34. The communication medium 34 may be used to facilitate long-haultransport of the signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60 for subsequent receipt atthe first end station 22. This type of long-haul transport of frequencydiverse signaling, derive from processing the non-frequency diversesignaling received at the input 44 to the signal processor, may behelpful in maximizing signaling throughput.

The second signal processor 48 may include a processor, a plurality ofdown-converter devices, a plurality of OFDM processing devices oralternative multicarrier or single carrier processing devices, aplurality of modulation de-mapping devices and a codewordde-multiplexing device. These devices may be configured to facilitateinverse operations to those described above with respect to the signalprocessor 12 in order to facilitate generating the output signal 46.While the signal processors 12, 48 are described with respect toincluding various devices to facilitate the contemplated signaltransmission, the signal processors 12, 48 may include otherelectronics, hardware, features, processors, or any other sufficienttype of infrastructure having capabilities sufficient to achieve thecontemplated signal manipulation. The first end station 22, inparticular, may include an output port or other interface to facilitatecommunication of the output signal 46 to the first UE 38. In thismanner, the communication system 10 may be configured to facilitatewireline signaling between the signal processor 12 and the first endstation 22. FIG. 2 describes signaling corresponding with a downstreamdirection for exemplary purposes as an equivalent but inverse set ofcomponents going in the uplink direction may be included to facilitatesimilar processes in a reverse or inverse order to facilitate upstreamsignaling.

FIGS. 4 a-4 b schematically illustrate operation of the communicationsystem 10 when facilitating wireless signal in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The wireless signaling maybe similar to the signaling described with respect to FIG. 2 in that aninput signal 100 received at the first signal processor 12 is convertedto an intermediary signal (combined into a single/common output to lasertransmitter, which is shown for exemplary purposes as having fourequivalent parts—h11, h22, h33, h44) for transmission to a second signalprocessor 104 for conversion to an output signal 106. The illustrationassociated with FIG. 4 differs from that in FIG. 2 at least in that theintermediary signal traverses at least part of the distance between thefirst and second signal processors 12, 104 through a wireless medium110. In particular, FIG. 4 illustrates a scenario where the intermediarysignal is transmitted initially through the wireline communicationmedium 34 and thereafter through the wireless communication medium 110,which may correspond with a signal traveling from the headend unit 30through the third end station 40 for wireless receipt at the second endstation 24 (see FIG. 1).

The configuration shown in FIG. 4 may have many uses and applications,including supporting cellular telephone services, or other services thatare at least partially dependent on wireless or RF signaling, such aswhere a provider desires to obtain certain benefits associated withtransporting signaling at least partially through the wirelinecommunication medium 34. The ability to at least partially rely on thewireline communication medium 34 may be beneficial in facilitatinglong-haul transport of the corresponding signaling (intermediary signal)in a manner that maximizes throughput and minimizes interference orother signaling loss that may otherwise occur if transmitted solelythrough wireless mediums. The third end station 40 may be includedbetween the first and second end stations 22, 24 to facilitateinterfacing the wireline communication medium 34 with the wirelesscommunication medium 110. Optionally, the third end station 40 may bepositioned as close to the second end station 24 as possible in order tomaximize use of the wireline communication medium 34 and/or the thirdend station 40 may be included as part of the first end station 22 inorder to maximize wireless communication.

The first and second signal processors 12, 104 shown in FIG. 4 may beconfigured similarly to the corresponding signal processors shown inFIG. 2. The elements illustrated in FIG. 4 with the same referencenumerals, unless otherwise noted, may be configured to perform in thesame manner as those described above with respect to FIG. 2. The firstand second signal processors 12, 104 of FIG. 4 may include an additionaldevice to facilitate supporting the at least partial wirelesscommunication, which is referred to as a spatial multiplexing andmapping device 116 and its corresponding inverse 116′. The spatialmultiplexing device 116 may be configured to facilitate spatialdiversity of the signal parts output from the modulation mapping devices62, 64, 66, 68. The spatial multiplexing and mapping device 116 may beconfigured to add delay to one or more of the signal parts 54, 56, 58,60 or modify these signal parts in different ways in order to facilitatespatially separating each signal part 54, 56, 58, 60 from one another.This may be beneficial in order to enhance the spatial diversity ofantennas 118, 120, 122, 124, which may be individually used to transmitthe signal parts 54, 56, 58, 60.

The third end station 40 may be configured to receive the frequencydiverse signaling output from the combiner 92. The third end station 40may include converter devices 128, 130, 132, 134 or additional featuressufficient to facilitate converting the received frequency diversesignaling to spatially diverse signaling. The third end station 40 mayinclude one converter device 128, 130, 132, 134 for each of the receivedsignal parts, i.e., a first converter 128 for the first signal part 54,a second converter 130 for the second signal part 56, a third converter132 for the third signal part 58 and a fourth converter 134 for thefourth signal part 60. Each converter 128, 130, 132, 134 may beconfigured to convert the frequency of the received signal part to acommon frequency in order to translate frequency diversity over medium34 to spatial diversity over medium 110. The common frequency maycorrespond with a frequency licensed by an originator of the inputsignal 100, e.g., wireless frequency ranges purchased by cell phoneservice providers and/or another frequency range otherwise designated tobe sufficient to facilitate subsequent wireless transmission to thesecond end station 24. The second end station 24 may include a separateantenna and separate active converter devices for each of the spatiallydiverse signal it receives in order to facilitate spatially receivingthe signal parts to the second UE. FIG. 4 describes signalingcorresponding with a downstream direction for exemplary purposes as anequivalent but inverse set of components going in the uplink directionmay be included to facilitate similar processes in a reverse or inverseorder to facilitate upstream signaling.

FIGS. 5 a-5 b schematically illustrates operation of the communicationsystem 10 when facilitating wireless signaling having enhanced spatialdiversity in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention. The wireless signaling may be similar to the signalingdescribed with respect to FIGS. 2 and 4 at least in that the inputsignal 100 received at the first signal processor 12 is converted to anintermediary signal (combined into a single/common output to lasertransmitter shown for exemplary purposes as having four equivalentparts—h11, h22, h33, h44) for transmission to the second signalprocessor 104 where it is then converted to the output signal 106. Theillustration associated with FIG. 5 differs from that in FIG. 4 at leastin that the intermediary signal traverses at least part of the distancebetween the first and second signal processors 12, 104 through thewireless medium 110 by way of two remote antenna units instead of one.FIG. 5 illustrates a scenario where the intermediary signal istransmitted initially through the wireline communication medium 34 andthereafter through the wireless communication medium 110, which maycorrespond with signaling traveling from the headend unit 30 through thethird end station 40 and the fourth end station 42 for wireless receiptat the second end station 24 (see FIG. 1). FIG. 5 provides enhancedspatial diversity for the wireless signals due to the third end station40 being at a location physical different from or spatially distinctfrom the fourth end station 42.

One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates the thirdand fourth end stations 40,42 being physically spaced apart in order toenhance the spatial diversity of the wireless signals transmittedtherefrom, at least in comparison to the wireless signaling shown inFIG. 4 to be transmitted solely from the third end station 40. Thefourth end station 42 is shown to be connected to a different trunk,cable, fiber line, etc. than the third end station 40 in order todemonstrate the ability of the signal processor 12 to transmit signalsto the second end station 24 using multiple, frequency diverse portionsof the wired communication medium 34. The signal processor 12 may beconfigured to select from any number of end stations when determiningthe two or more end stations desired to communicate wireless signalingwith the second end station. The two or more end stations may optionallyincluded another end station that may be closer to the second endstation and/or connected to the same trunk or feed, such as but notlimited to a fifth end station 140 (see FIG. 1). In this manner, thesignaling desired for receipt at the second end station may commonlyoriginate from the signal processor and thereafter traverse differentportions of the wired communication medium 34 and the wirelesscommunication medium 110 prior to being re-joined and commonly receivedat the second end station 24. FIG. 5 describes signaling correspondingwith a downstream direction for exemplary purposes as an equivalent butinverse set of components going in the uplink direction may be includedto facilitate similar processes in a reverse or inverse order tofacilitate upstream signaling.

FIGS. 6 a-6 b schematically illustrates operation of the communicationsystem 10 when facilitating wireless signaling having enhanced spatialdiversity with beamforming in accordance with one non-limiting aspect ofthe present invention. The wireless signaling may be similar to thesignaling described with respect to FIGS. 2, 4 and 5 at least in thatthe input signal 100 received at the first signal processor 12 isconverted to an intermediary signal (combined into a single/commonoutput to laser transmitter shown for exemplary purposes as having fourequivalent parts—h11, h22, h33, h44) for transmission to the secondsignal processor 104 where it is then converted to the output signal106. The illustration associated with FIG. 6 differs from that in FIG. 5at least in that the intermediary signal traverses at least part of thedistance between the first and second signal processors 12, 104 throughthe wireless medium 110 using beamforming. FIG. 6 illustrates a scenariowhere the intermediary signal received at each of the first and secondend stations 40, 42 is replicated with beamformers such that duplicatesignals are output to addition ports for use in transmitting fourwireless signals. The additional wireless signals may be replicated withphase, delay or amplitude adjustments sufficient to facilitatebeamforming. FIG. 6 describes signaling corresponding with a downstreamdirection for exemplary purposes as an equivalent but inverse set ofcomponents going in the uplink direction may be included to facilitatesimilar processes in a reverse or inverse order to facilitate upstreamsignaling.

The signal processor 12 may be configured to facilitate MIMO relatedsignaling by processing an input signal into multiple, frequency diversesignals (e.g., h11, h22, h33, h44) particularly suitable fortransmission over an HFC infrastructure. Following transmission over theHFC infrastructure, the signals may optionally be processed for furtherwireless transport, such as by converting the frequency diverse, MIMOrelated signals to a common frequency prior to facilitating wirelesstransmission. Spatial diversity may be facilitated on the frequencyconverted signals sharing the common frequency by adding delay and/orother adjustments and transformations, i.e., signals carried over theHFC infrastructure, and/or by directing different portions of the MIMOsignals derived from the same input signal to different, spatiallydiverse remote antenna units 40, 42 before wireless transport.Optionally, the frequency diverse, MIMO signals may be transmitted todifferent types of remote antenna units or remote antenna units havingdifferent transmission capabilities, e.g., FIG. 5 illustrates the thirdand station 40 having two converters and two antenna ports and thefourth end station 42 having four converters and four antenna ports.

The remote antenna units 40, 42, or more particularly the convertersassociated therewith, may be configured to convert received signalingfor transport over corresponding antennas ports. Each antenna port maybe configured to transmit one of the converted, MIMO signals (h11, h22,h33, h44), effectively resulting in transmission of multiple signals,e.g., signal h11 effectively produces multiple signals g11, g12, g13,g14 due to signal h11 being received at multiple antenna ports includedon the receiving user equipment 24. The remote antenna units 40, 42 maybe configured to simultaneously emit multiple MIMO signals, such as MIMOsignals associated with different feeds and/or MIMO signals intended forreceipt at other usual equipment besides the illustrated user equipment24. The remote antenna units 40, 42 may include capability sufficient tofacilitate beamforming or otherwise shaping wireless signals emittedtherefrom, such as to in a manner that prevents the beams fromoverlapping with each other or unduly interfering with other transmittedsignaling. The beamforming may be implemented using multiple antennaarrays or selection of antennas ports associated with each of theillustrated antennas, such as according to the processes and teachingsassociated with U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/922,595, thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 7 illustrates a signal processor 150 as configured to facilitatesignaling in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention. The signal processor 150 may be considered as a 2×2 MIMOsignal processor at least in that in the input signal 44 is shown to beprocessed into a first signal (h11) and a second signal (h22) fortransport. The signal processor 150 may be one of the signal processors12 residing at the headend or hub location 30 in a wireline cablenetwork as an aggregation/distribution component to facilitateinterconnecting an aggregation network to the access or localdistribution network (e.g., wireline network 34 and/or wireless network110). The signal processor 150 may include a plurality of devicesconfigured to facilitate processing signals for wireline transport overthe cable network 34, and optionally subsequent wireless transmissionover the wireless network 110. (The plurality of devices are illustratedin FIGS. 2, 4 and 5 for exemplary non-limiting purposes with respect tothose associated with facilitating downlink communications, i.e.,communications originating from headend and thereafter traversing in adownstream direction to the end stations). The devices are shown forexemplary non-limiting purposes with respect to being arranged intothree basic components: a baseband processor unit 152, a radio frequencyintegrated circuit (RFIC) 154 and a front end 156.

The baseband processor 152 unit may include various devices (e.g., thedevices 52, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76 and/or 116) associated withprocessing the input signals received at the signal processor forsubsequent transport. The baseband processor unit 152 may process theinput signals, which may be baseband, non-CW signals or signalsotherwise lacking spatial and/or frequency diversity, into frequencydiverse signals (e.g., when configured in accordance with FIG. 2 or inother situations when sufficient spatial diversity may be provided(e.g., in the event two remote antennas are sufficiently spaced) andinto frequency and spatially diverse signals (e.g., when configured inaccordance with FIGS. 4-6). The baseband processor unit 152 may beconfigured to generate individual data paths in a digital form prior toconversion into a digitally modulated RF signal for upconversion to theintended frequencies. Rather than having the baseband processor 152 in adifferent location than the RFIC 154 and the front end 156 as is thecase with some remote antenna unit implementations, one non-limitingaspect of the present invention contemplates having them co-located,optionally with a Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC)specification (JESD207) interface 158 or an equivalent or otherwisesufficient interface as a connection piece to a transmit/receive (Tx/Rx)digital interface 160. The JESD207 interface 158 may eliminate the needfor connecting the baseband processor using a fiber optic link forcarrying the digitized RF therebetween.

Optionally, the baseband processor 152 may utilize the capability forhigher order modulation as well as capabilities for carrying informationwithin a long term evolution (LTE) payload or other wireless payloadcontaining the HFC frequency assignment, end device and antenna elementlocation information (used while in the HFC domain 34). This informationmay be used to further enhance the capabilities of the system tofacilitate transmitting signaling over wireline and wireless segments.In addition, reliance on the LTE protocol may enable use of a number ofcontrol channels, such as a Packet Data Control Channel (PDCCH) tofacilitate at least downlink signaling, system setup and linkmaintenance. The output channels h11, h22 may be specified as low ordermodulation only (QPSK or BPSK) to ensure robustness in the wirelessenvironment. However, in the cable environment, control channel overheadcould be reduced by using only one symbol of PDCCH instead of the threesymbols used in wireless applications and efficiency could be greatlyincreased by increasing the modulation order of these channels andleveraging the more benign channel characteristics of the HFC plant.Additionally, the present invention proposes updates to modify thelength of the cyclic prefix (CP) currently specified in the LTEprotocol. CP inserted before each OFDM symbol can be reduced in thecable environment to improve efficiency, at least in comparison to LTE,which specifies a number of CP lengths to take into account of varyingdegrees of expected inter-symbol interference.

At least in the downlink direction, the RFIC 154 may be the componentthat uses the digital data paths signals and directs them through anappropriate digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 164, 166, 168, 170 to besubsequently upconvert to desired frequencies. The RFIC may beconfigured in accordance with the present invention to employindependent local oscillators (LO) 172, 174 and transmit synthesizers176, 178 for each path (h11, h22). The use of separate oscillators maybe beneficial in allowing for multiple independently placed data pathsat different frequencies to enhance frequency orthogonality, e.g., thedata path output from the OFDM 70 may be converted to a frequency (F1)that is different from a frequency (F2) of the data path output from theOFDM 72. (An oscillator common to both paths (h11, h22), at least whenconnected in the illustrated manner, would be unable to generated theseparate frequencies F1, F2.) Filters 180, 182, 184, 186 may be includedfor an in-phase portion (h11(in), h22(in)) and a quadrature portion(h11(quad), h22(quad)) to filter signals before subsequent front endprocessing, such as to facilitate removing noise, interferences or othersignal components before the in-band and quadrature portions reach RFmixers operating in cooperation with the oscillators 172, 174.Optionally, the filters 180, 182, 184, 186 may be tunable, e.g.,according to the frequency of the signaling from the OFDM 70, 72 as theOFDM frequency may vary. Instead of frequency multiplexing the signalsadjacent to each other, and thereby requiring sharp roll-off filtering,the separate oscillators 172, 174 may be used to maintain frequencyorthogonality, i.e., signal spacing, optionally allowing for placementof the orthogonal signal carriers without guard-bands and/or the use ofa filter(s). The RFIC may be configured with 90 degree phase shifters187, 189 to generate signals that are in-phase and in-quadrature tomaximize total capacity. The phase shifter 187, 189 receive the localoscillator signal as input and generate two local oscillator signaloutputs that are 90 degrees out of phase. These components enable thegeneration of quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM) signals. Thisinvention describes the transmission of QAM signals as an example but itis not limited to QAM based transmissions.

The front end device 156 may be configured to aggregate and drive thesignals h11, h22 to the coaxial medium (RF distribution and combiningnetwork) in the downlink direction. With the front end 156 connecting tothe wired communication medium 34, the preset invention contemplatesdelivering signals from the signal processor 150 at relatively lowerpower levels than the signals would otherwise need to be delivered ifbeing transmitted wirelessly. In particular, the contemplated cableimplementation may employ amplifiers 188 (see FIG. 1) within the fiberand/or trunks to maintain the signaling power within certain levels,i.e., to amplify signaling output (h11, h22) from the RF distributionand combining network at relatively lower power levels and/or to ensurethe signal power as emitted from the RF combining network remainsapproximately constant. The power level, for example, of a 20 MHz signal(h11, h22) output from the RF distribution and combining network to theoptical transmitter may be approximately −25 dBm whereas similarwireless signaling outputted to an antenna, such as from a macro cell,may need to be greater, e.g., approximately 40 dBm. This contemplatedcapability of the present invention to leverage existing amplifiers andcapabilities of existing HFC plants 34 may be employed to minimize theoutput signaling power requirements, and thereby improve designimplications (i.e. lower gain) and provide lower implementation costs.

Downlink amplifiers 192, 194, 196 and/or filters 198, 200, 202 may becontrollable to facilitate outputting the corresponding signaling atdifferent power levels, e.g., the amplification of a first amplifier 192may be different from a second amplifier 194 and/or an output amplifier196. The amplification of the first and second amplifiers 192, 194, forexample, may be set according to a signaling frequency and path beingtraversed to a corresponding output end station or remote antenna unit,i.e., the amplification of the signaling to the third end station 40 maybe greater than or less than the amplification of the signaling to thefourth end station 42. In the medium 34, the channel frequency used tocarry signals to end station 40 may be more attenuated than the channelfrequency carrying the signals to end station 42, which may becompensated for with corresponding control of the amplifiers 192, 194.The ability to control the amplification on a per path basis may bebeneficial in setting a slope of the corresponding signaling to accountfor losses, attenuation and/or other signaling characteristics of thecorresponding path within the wired communication medium 34 in order toinsure the signals are approximately flat when received at thecorresponding output (e.g., the third and fourth end stations 40, 42).The output amplifier 196 may be similarly adjustable to furtherfacilitate refinement of signaling power levels, such as to commonlyamplify the signaling output (h11, h22) to the RF combiner using alarger and/or less precise amplifier than the first and secondamplifiers 192, 194, which may be beneficial in allowing the use ofsmaller/more precise/accurate individual adjustment of first and secondamplifiers 192, 194 and/or a more cost effective configuration.

The first and second amplifiers 192, 194 may optionally operate incooperation with corresponding first and second filters 198, 200. Thefirst and second filters 198, 200 may be controllable in order tofacilitate downstream synchronization, elimination of sidelobes,unwanted adjacent channel energy and/or to compensate for signaldistortions and/or other characteristics of the particular data paths tobe traversed by the corresponding signaling. A combiner or othersummation device 202 may be configured to join the signals (h11, h22)output from the first and second amplifier 192, 194, optionally afterbeing individually gain adjusted and/or filtered. A bandpass filter suchas a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter 204 may be used tominimize/suppress the energy of the OFDM sidelobes (70, 72) that may begenerated outside the occupied signal spectrum, such as by passingthrough signaling within a passband range and blocking signaling outsidethereof. The BAW 204, like the output amplifier 196, may be an extracomponent positioned downstream of the first/second amplifiers andfilters 192, 194, 198, 200 in order to commonly filter the outputsignaling, such as for the purposes of using a larger and/or lessprecise filter 204 than the first and second filter 198, 200, which maybe beneficial in allowing the use of smaller/more precise/accurate firstand second filters 198, 200 and/or a more cost effective configuration.The BAW filter 204 or an equivalent filter may be used to protectservices that coexist within medium 34, which occupy adjacent spectrumto the system described here.

In the uplink direction, signal processor 150 may be configured toprocessing incoming signals from an end stations ES, which is shown forexemplary purposes a signal h11, which may be different than the h11signal transmitted on the downlink. The signal processor 150 is shown tosupport 2×2 MIMO on the downlink and 1×1, or non-MIMO, on the uplink forexemplary, non-limiting purposes as similar MIMO capabilities may beprovided on the uplink. The incoming signal (h11) may be processed withthird and fourth amplifiers 208, 210 and third and fourth filters 212,214. The third and fourth amplifiers/filters 208, 210, 212, 214 may becontrollable and/or tunable in order to facilitate proper signalrecovery. As multiple tunings may occur over time for the downstreamsignaling, the upstream tunings may be similarly dynamic. Stateinformation may be kept to track and control the specific tuningparameters and/or data or other information may be include in thereceived signaling to facilitate the desired tuning of the third andfurther amplifiers/filters. Analog to digital converters (ADC) 216, 218may be used to digitize the upstream down converted RF signals such thatthe front end device 156 may be configured to aggregate and drive thesignal h11 from the coaxial medium in the uplink direction. As opposedto the separate oscillators and synthesizers in the downlink, the uplinkmaybe configured to operate in a SISO (or 1×1 MIMO) configuration mayinclude a single oscillator and synthesizer 220, 222 to facilitatecommonly converting the incoming signaling (h11) to the frequency outputfrom the baseband processor (i.e., frequency of 70, 72) and/or anotherdesired frequency. In case of an uplink configuration of 2×2 MIMO orgreater MIMO order in medium 34 which requires frequency diversity,multiple local oscillators may be used.

FIG. 8 illustrates a signal processor 250 as configured to facilitatesignaling in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention. The signal processor 250 may be considered as a 4×4, MIMOsignal processor at least in that singular signals input to and outputfrom the baseband processor may be processed into a first signal (h11),a second signal (h22), a third signal (h33) and a fourth signal (h44)during uplink and downlink transport through the signal processor 250.The signal processor 250 may be configured similarly to the signalingprocessor 150 shown in FIG. 8, particularly with respect to the use ofamplifiers, filters, combiners, digital and analog converters andoscillators/synthesizers (reference numerals have been omitted howeverthe operation of the components may be controlled in the mannerdescribed above and the associated operation may be understood accordingto the corresponding circuit designation known to those skilled in theart). The signal processor 250 may include multipleoscillators/synthesizers, designated as F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7 andF8, each of which be operable at a different and/or controllablefrequency, to facilitate the contemplated MIMO operations. An RFsplitter 252 may be added in the uplink to facilitate separatingincoming (upstream) signaling into the equivalent parts h11, h22, h33,h44. (Note that unlike FIG. 6 that shows a SISO configuration in uplink,this example shows a 4×4 MIMO in the uplink.)

FIG. 9 illustrates a signal processor 260 as configured to facilitatesignaling in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention. The signal processor 260 may include the baseband processorunit common to the signal processors shown above (12, 150, 250) whilebeing configured to leverage the same chip as the wireless unit but withthe RFIC and the front end chips being customized for the HFCenvironment. In FIG. 9, wideband generation of the aggregate spectrum ofall LTE MIMO data paths and aggregated carriers takes place in a singlestep (e.g., combining multiple signal components (h11(in)+h22(in) in thedownlink and simultaneously receiving other signals in the uplink suchas (h11(in)+h22(in)). This may require a much higher sampling rate DACin order to generate a much wider spectrum that would include a largernumber of channels associated to the MIMO data paths and aggregated LTEcarriers. For example an LTE system that uses 4×4 MIMO in the downlinkand aggregates of two 20 MHz carriers, occupies a total of 4×2×20MHz=160 MHz assuming the 20 MHz channels are placed continuously withoutgaps. This spectrum can be made wider assuming that higher rank MIMO andhigher carrier aggregation are implemented. In addition to the highersampling rates DACs it is also required that at the Tx/Rx digitalinterface the data paths are intelligently aggregated.

This type of aggregation lends itself for further optimization makingsure that all downlink transmissions are synchronized and orthogonal toeach other. The orthogonality requirement enables the elimination ofguardbands as described in the continuous OFDM system of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/841,313, the disclosure of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety. A 10% improvement inefficiency can be achieved, the 160 MHz occupied signal bandwidthreduces to 144 MHz (4×2×18 MHz). What is shown in FIG. 8 is a basebandof 160 MHz (or 144 MHz when guardband elimination is applied)aggregation of channels that are upconverted to an RF frequency. An evenhigher sampling rate can generate full spectrum and avoid theupconversion process. These different implementation options provideflexibility based on the cost of customization of the overall system.

As shown in FIG. 5, the signal processor 12, optionally having thevarious RFIC and front end configurations associated with the moredetailed signal processors 150, 250, 260 (baseband portions arecontemplated to be essentially the same for each implementation exceptfor the number of signal paths and related components varying dependingon whether the configuration is 1×1, 2×2, 2×1, 4×4, 8×8 etc.), may beconfigured to facilitate MIMO related signaling by processing an inputsignal into multiple, frequency diverse signals (e.g., h11, h22, h33,h44) particularly suitable for transmission over an HFC infrastructure.Following transmission over the HFC infrastructure, the signals mayoptionally be processed for further wireless transport, such as byconverting the frequency diverse, MIMO related signals to a commonfrequency prior to facilitating wireless transmission. Spatial diversitymay be facilitated by adding delay and/or other adjustments to thefrequency diverse signals, i.e., signals carried over the HFCinfrastructure, and/or by directing different portions of the MIMOsignals derived from the same input signal to different, spatiallydiverse remote antennas before wireless transport. Optionally, thefrequency diverse, MIMO signals may be transmitted to different types ofremote antennas units or remote antennas units having differenttransmission capabilities, e.g., FIG. 5 illustrates the third andstation 40 having two converters and the fourth end station 42 havingfour converters.

The remote antenna units 40, 42, or more particularly the convertersassociated therewith, may be configured to convert received signalingfor transport over corresponding antennas. Each antenna may beconfigured to transmit one of the converted, MIMO signals (h11, h22,h33, h44), effectively resulting in transmission of multiple signals,e.g., signal h11 effectively produces multiple signals g11, g12, g13,g14 due to signal h11 being received at multiple antennas included onthe receiving user equipment 24. The remote antenna units 40, 42 may beconfigured to simultaneously emit multiple signals, such as MIMO signalsassociated with different feeds and/or MIMO signals intended for receiptat other usual equipment besides the illustrated user equipment 24. Theremote antenna units 40, 42 may include capability sufficient tofacilitate beamforming or otherwise shaping wireless signals emittedtherefrom, such as to in a manner that prevents the beams fromoverlapping with each other or unduly interfering with other transmittedsignaling. The beamforming may be implemented using multiple antennaarrays or antennas associated with each of the illustrated antennas,such as according to the processes and teachings associated with U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/922,595, the disclosure of which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart 300 of a method for transporting signalsin accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention. Themethod may be embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium,computer program product or other construct having computer-readableinstructions, code, software, logic and the like. The instructions maybe operable with an engine, processor or other logically executingdevice of the remote antenna unit and/or another one or more of thedevices/components described herein to facilitate controlling thesignaling processor and/or the other devices/components in the mannercontemplated by the present invention to facilitate delivering wirelesssignaling (e.g., a master controller). The method is predominatelydescribed for exemplary non-limiting purpose with respect to at least aportion of the wireless signaling, or corresponding intermediarysignaling, being long-hauled carried over a wired and/or wirelinecommunication medium, such as but not necessarily limited to cable orhybrid-fiber coax (HFC) network. The long-haul or intermediary signalingmay be facilitated with processing or other controls performed with thesignal processor to provide wired transport over a greater distance thanthe eventual wireless signaling transport, thereby leverage off of theeconomies associated with wired transport while also facilitatinginteractions with wireless devices (e.g., a powerful signal processor ina centralized location with de-centralized, less powerful or lessexpensive remote antenna units).

Block 302 relates to scanning for user equipment (UE) using singleremote antenna unit sectors. The remote antenna unit sectors maycorrespond with wireless areas covered by remote antenna units (andstations) having capabilities sufficient to facilitate receiving thewireline transported signal and thereafter converting the receivedsignals to wireless signals. The scanning may be performed to identifyone or more pieces of user equipment, referred to hereinafter asdevices, desiring to receive wireless signals following transport overthe wireline communication medium and/or to transmit wireless signalsfor subsequent transport over the wireline communication medium. Thescanning may be performed on a per signal processor basis in order tofacilitate processing an input signal intended for transport over awireline communication medium and final/initial transport over awireless communication medium The method is predominantly described withrespect to downlink or downstream signaling where the input signaloriginates at a signal processor and is eventually received at one ofthe devices for exemplary non-limiting purposes as the present inventionfully contemplates similar processing and operations being performed tofacilitate uplink or upstream signals, i.e., wireless signalsoriginating from one of the devices. The scanning may identify devicesdesiring signal transport and the signal processors associated withfacilitating the related signaling.

Block 304 relates to rating remote antenna unit sector connectivityquality on a per device basis to identify the remote antenna unitshaving capabilities sufficient to facilitate wireless signaling with oneor more of the devices. The ratings may be organized or tabulated inorder to associate each device with one or more remote antenna unitshaving or lacking connectivity quality sufficient to facilitate wirelesssignaling therewith. The ratings may be based on networking signals orother wireless signals exchanged between the devices and the remoteantenna units as part of a handshake operation or other operationrelated to gaining access to a wireless network or wireless service areaassociated with each remote antenna unit (the wireless servicearea/network of each remote antenna unit may overlap to define a largerwireless medium). The connectivity quality may be based on relativesignal strength indicators (RSSI) or other factors related to signalquality, integrity, or other influences on the ability of the device tofacilitate wireless signaling with one or more remote antenna units. Theconnectivity quality may be assessed on a pass/fail basis such that theremote antenna units having capabilities sufficient to facilitatewireless connectivity with one or more devices may be identified andthose lacking sufficient connectivity may be omitted, at least until adevice moves within range or otherwise improves its transmitcapabilities (e.g., greater power or gain, less interference, etc.). Theresults may be tabulated for each device for subsequent use inidentifying remote antenna unit(s) available as candidates to facilitatethe contemplated wireless signaling.

Block 306 relates to determining capabilities or other characteristicsfor the devices desiring wireless signal exchange. The devicecapabilities may include assessing MIMO capabilities (e.g., whether thedevice has multiple antennas or an antenna array configurable tofacilitate receiving multiple wireless signals), latitude and longitude(lat-long), antenna type or characteristics, power capabilities,beamforming suitability, etc. The device capability assessment maygenerally relate to determining controllable parameters and/orlimitations of the devices in order to facilitate configuring the remoteantenna unit(s) to operate in a manner commiserate with desired wirelessperformance (e.g., in some cases it may be desirable to assessperformance relative to signal integrity and in other cases it may bedesirable to assess performance relative to signal range, power, etc.).Depending on the desired performance or other operational constraints,such as but not necessary limited to wireless capacity and/or signalrates available to the devices, certain capabilities of the devices maybe assessed and/or related data may be requested from the devices. Thepresent invention fully contemplates devices having any number ofcapabilities and/or operating characteristics such that any one of thesecharacteristics may be assessed and used to facilitate subsequentwireless signaling therewith.

Block 308 relates to determining a mobility state of the devices. Themobility state may be determined to characterize whether the devices isstatic, semi-static or in motion. The latitude and longitude associatedwith each device may be periodically measured to determine whether thedevice falls within one of the static, semi-static or in motion states.The mobility states are described with respect to being one of static,semi-static or in motion for exemplary non-limiting purposes as thepresent invention fully contemplates assessing the ability of thedevices according to any number of other states. The noted states aredescribed in order to demonstrate three thresholds that may be useful inassessing whether the corresponding device is likely to remain in itscurrent position (static), remain relatively close to its currentposition such that wireless signaling is likely to be unaffected orunlikely to require immediate change (semi-static) or likely to keepmoving or begin moving such that wireless signaling may be affected,e.g., the remote antenna units needed to maintain continuouscommunication with the wireless device may change due to the wirelessdevice being mobile. The mobility states or their correspondingthresholds may be based on capabilities of the signal processor and/orremote antenna units to change operating settings and/or signaltransmissions, e.g., whether signals can be re-processed quickly enoughover the wired communication medium to enable multiple remote antennaunits to communicate with a moving device. The mobility state may beperiodically re-assessed in order to facilitate changing mobility statedeterminations from one state to another state.

Block 310 relates to assessing remote antenna unit capabilities for theremote antenna units having devices within wireless range and/or likelyto have devices within wireless range in the near future. The assessmentof the remote antenna unit capabilities may be similar to the assessmentperformed with respect to the devices at least insofar as assessing thecapabilities of the remote antenna units to facilitate wirelesssignaling. Block 310 also contemplates assessing spectrumresources/capabilities for the wired communication medium (HFC) and thesignal processor(s) being associated therewith. These capabilities mayinfluence the portions of the wired communication medium that may beavailable to transport signals, e.g., some portions of the wiredcommunication medium from a bandwidth or frequency perspective mayalready be maximized and unable to support signal transport (the remoteantenna units associated therewith may be eliminated as candidates). Thefrequency, bandwidth and other transport related characteristics of thewired communication medium and/or the signal processor(s) may influencea number of decisions made by the master controller or other entitytasked with monitoring system operations, including those associatedwith selecting the one or more remote antenna units to communicate witheach of the devices and the signaling parameters to be used whenfacilitating transmission of the attendant signaling over the wiredcommunication medium and/or the wireless communication medium.

Block 312 relates to associating the devices identified in Block 302 asdesiring wireless signaling with one or more of the remote antenna unitsidentified to be suitable candidates in Block 310. The association maybe performed at a port-level or antenna-basis such that multiple remoteantenna units may be associated with the same or multiple devices and/orindividual antennas/ports on the remote antenna units and/or the devicesmay be associated with each other. The associations may correspond withselecting one or more remote antenna units identified as candidates forfurther use in communicating with each of the devices and associatingthe corresponding antennas/ports on the selected remote antenna unitswith a counterpart on the corresponding device, i.e., on aone-to-one-basis. The present invention contemplates any number ofmethodologies for determining the contemplated associations, includingthose that benefit one parameter over another, e.g., spatial diversitymay be preferred over longevity and/or based on other limitations suchas frequency availability, HFC spectrum, etc. may influenceassociations. The number of available remote antenna units may vary andthe relationship of the remote antenna units relative to static ormoving ones of the devices may also very such that the associationdeterminations may be relatively dynamic and/or require frequent updatesand/or adjustments in order to facilitate continuous signaling and/or toenable transmissions to complete.

One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplatesfacilitating the association and/or otherwise selecting the remoteantenna unit(s) to be used in facilitating wireless communication withthe devices based at least in part on spatial diversity. The spatialdiversity may be characterized by relative spatial positioning of eachremote antenna unit to each device it is selected to communicate with.When multiple remote antenna units are selected to communicate with asingle device, performance may be improved by maximizing or otherwiseensuring sufficient spatial diversity of the remote antenna unitsrelative to the single device. FIG. 11 illustrates a diagram 320 showingspatial diversity as contemplated by one non-limiting aspect of thepresent invention. The diagram 320 illustrates an exemplary scenariowhere four remote antenna units 322, 324, 326, 328 are determined to becandidates to facilitate communications with a single device located ata first location 330. The spatial diversity or spatial positioning ofeach remote antenna unit may be based on angular positioning relative tothe first location 330. The angular positioning of the first remoteantenna unit 322 is shown to correspond with 0°, the angular positioningof the second remote antenna unit 324 is shown to correspond with 90°,the angular positioning of the third remote antenna unit 326 is shown tocorrespond with 180° and the angular positioning of the fourth remoteantenna unit 328 shown to correspond with 225°.

The master controller may assess these angular positioning values whenselecting the one or more of the first, second, third and fourth remoteantenna units 322, 324, 326, 328 to be used when facilitatingcommunications with the device while at the first location 330. Themaster controller may then rely on the angular positioning values toassess spatial diversity with respect to the available remote antennaunits 322, 324, 326, 328, and optionally based thereon, select theantennas 322, 328 to be used in facilitating wireless signaling with thefirst location 330. Depending on the number of remote antenna units 322,324, 326, 328 available to facilitate the wireless signaling, any numberof factors may be weighed when selecting the remote antenna units 322,328. In the illustrated example, with four relatively evenly spacedremote antenna units being available, the selected antennas are shownfor exemplary non-limiting purposes with respect to being the first andfourth remote antenna units 322, 328. The first and fourth remoteantenna units 322, 328 may be selected for a number of reasons, such asbased on the portion of the wired communication medium being used todeliver the corresponding signals having less bandwidth usage or lessrestrictions than the portion of the medium used to deliver signals tothe second and/or third remote antenna units 324, 326, spectrum orbandwidth constraints on the second and/or third antennas 324, 326limiting their use, etc. Optionally, particularly when multiple remoteantenna units are available, a minimum or threshold of related angularpositioning (0) may be used to facilitate the selection, e.g., a minimumthreshold of 100° maybe used such that the remote antenna unitcombinations having a similar path (small relative angle) are voided andremote antenna unit combinations at right angles are eliminated and/orthe threshold may be adjusted depending on the number of availableremote antenna units.

The remote antenna units 322, 328 selected to facilitate wirelesssignaling may also be determined based on operational considerations orcapabilities of the remote antenna units 322, 324, 326, 328. Thebeamforming capabilities of the remote antenna units 322, 324, 326, 328may be one type of operational consideration assessed when selecting theavailable remote antenna units to facilitate the wireless signaling. Thebeamforming capabilities may be assessed to determine whether theavailable remote antenna units 322, 324, 326, 328 can direct a beam 332or otherwise focus wireless signaling towards the first location 330 toenhance performance. Optionally, the directions that the beam may befocused beyond the first location, i.e., whether the correspondingremote antenna unit 322, 324, 326, 328 is able to maintain a continuousbeam or wireless signaling capabilities while the device moves from thefirst location 330 to a second location 334 may be considered as part ofassessing the beamforming enhancements. Optionally, the beamformingconsiderations may be used in cooperation with the angularpositioning/spatial diversity considerations such that the beamformingmay be used as a tiebreaker when multiple remote antenna units 322, 324,326, 328 are equally spaced and otherwise equally or approximatelyequally suitable to facilitate wireless signaling whereby the selectedremote antenna units may be one or more having the better or preferredbeamforming capabilities.

In addition to the beamforming and/or angular positioning basedassessments, other criteria may be used to select the used remoteantenna units from the available remote antenna units. Antenna portresources may be one factor considered to assess the suitable of eachremote antenna unit as well as amount of traffic and concentration ofwireless users to be assigned or already assigned to each remote antennaunit. If user congestion at specific remote antenna unit is greater thantraffic expected from target amount of traffic then those remote antennaunits may be desirable to eliminate or demote in ranking. Such trafficor congestion may be measured as amount of traffic compared to totalcapacity where traffic is measured or estimated as bits per second,optionally using a formula to pick four remote antenna units (desirednumber may vary) and then use congestion to move on to others if one ofthe four exceeds threshold. Other factors such as signaling powerlevels, the number of antenna elements, antenna arrays or portsavailable on each remote antenna unit, channel loading, spare antennaports/elements and other factors may influence ability of certain remoteantenna units to continue to provide desired levels of wirelesssignaling and/or the likelihood that certain remote antenna units arelikely to experience greater, detrimental wireless signaling demand inthe future.

FIG. 5 illustrates a scenario where two remote antenna units 40, 42 havebeen selected to facilitate enhanced 4×4 MIMO wireless communicationsusing two ports on two spatially separated remote antenna units 40, 42.The four ports, labeled as Tx1, Tx2, Tx3, Tx4, may correspond with fourports selected from N remote antenna units based on a correspondingremote antenna unit selection metric. The remote antenna unit selectionmetric may be analyzed for multiple groups of N remote antenna units asselected from the available remote antenna units. The lowest valued ormultiple ones of the lower valued remote antenna units determined as afunction of the remote antenna unit metric may be used to determine aninitial termination of N (i.e. two, four, etc.) remote antenna units.Each initial combination(s) may then be further analyzed using a MIMOmatrix manipulation process described below prior to actually beinginstructed to facilitate the desired wireless signaling. The remoteantenna unit metric may be based on the following formula:

${{remote}\mspace{14mu} {antenna}\mspace{14mu} {unit}{\mspace{11mu} \;}{selection}\mspace{14mu} {metric}} = {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{N}\; {\text{?}\left\{ {{{{{\theta_{i} - \theta_{i - 1}}} -}} + {{{{\theta_{i + 1} - \theta_{i}}} -}}} \right\}}}$?indicates text missing or illegible when filed

where N=number of participating remote antenna units; i=remote antennaunit index, varies from 1 to N; G_(i)=the antenna gain for the i_(th)remote antenna unit; P_(MAXi)=the maximum power that the i_(th) remoteantenna unit can transmit; d_(i)=the distance from the device desiringwireless signaling to the i_(th) remote antenna unit; and θ_(i) is theangle in degrees indicating the direction from the device to the i_(th)remote antenna unit (for the purpose of populating the summation, theangles may repeat in a circle around the device such that θ_(N+1)=θ₁ andθ₀=θ_(N)). The remote antenna unit selection matrix generates values foreach combination of remote antenna units based on angular positioning asadjusted according to distance, gain and power such that a lower valuerepresents a better candidate while also enabling lower values to beachieved even if angular positioning is not ideal, e.g., in the event asufficient relationship exists between distance, gain and power. In thismanner, some conditions may permit a device located farther away fromthe device to be a better candidate if the device has greater gain andpower capabilities than a closer device.

Following the remote antenna unit selection matrix calculations,additional factors may be considered when determining which one or moreof the remote antenna units are the best candidate for facilitatingwireless communications with the device. This may include analyzing thetransfer function for each remote antenna grouping having a metricsufficient to indicate their suitability to facilitate wirelesscommunications. The transfer function of each data path g_(i,j), where iis the index of each transmitting antenna and j is the index of eachreceiving antenna, may be used to determine the transfer function matrixand whether the degree of uncorrelation between data paths would alloweffective multiplication of capacity as compared to a single-input andsingle-output (SISO) system. Relative to FIG. 5, the following transferfunction, optionally including background noise term (No1, No2, etc.),may be used to facilitate determining whether the equation is solvableand multiplication of capacity compared to a single-input, single-output(SISO) system is feasible.

$\left\lbrack {{{Rx}\; 1},{{Rx}\; 2},{{Rx}\; 3},{{Rx}\; 4}} \right\rbrack = {\left\lbrack {{{Tx}\; 1},{{Tx}\; 2},{{Tx}\; 3},{{Tx}\; 4}} \right\rbrack {\quad{\left\lbrack \begin{matrix}{g\; 11} & {g\; 12} & {g\; 13} & {g\; 14} \\{g\; 21} & {g\; 22} & {g\; 23} & {g\; 24} \\{g\; 31} & {g\; 32} & {g\; 33} & {g\; 34} \\{g\; 41} & {g\; 42} & {g\; 43} & {g\; 44}\end{matrix} \right\rbrack + \left\lbrack {{{No}\; 1},{{No}\; 2},{{No}\; 3},{{No}\; 4}} \right\rbrack}}}$

In case all data paths are not uncorrelated, this transfer functionmatrix reduces to a smaller rank matrix. The equation below shows a casewhere the data paths from three remote antenna units are correlatedhence the rank of this matrix reduces from four to two and at mostcapacity would be the capacity of a SISO system multiplied by a factorof 2.

$\left\lbrack {{{Rx}\; 1},{{Rx}\; 2},{{Rx}\; 3},{{Rx}\; 4}} \right\rbrack = {\left\lbrack {{{Tx}\; 1},{{Tx}\; 2},{{Tx}\; 3},{{Tx}\; 4}} \right\rbrack {\quad{\left\lbrack \begin{matrix}{h\; 11} & {h\; 1\; 2} & {h\; 13} & {h\; 14} \\{h\; 21} & {h\; 22} & {h\; 23} & {h\; 24} \\{h\; 21} & {h\; 22} & {h\; 23} & {h\; 24} \\{h\; 21} & {h\; 22} & {h\; 23} & {h\; 24}\end{matrix} \right\rbrack + \left\lbrack {{{No}\; 1},{{No}\; 2},{{No}\; 3},{{No}\; 4}} \right\rbrack}}}$

If the data path signal levels are not much greater than the noiselevels, the limited signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) would result in lowerorder modulations. The signals from the four transmitter antenna portsof one four-port antenna may be given by Tx1, Tx2, Tx3 and Tx4. Thesignals received by a four port antenna in each of the antenna ports maybe given by Rx1, Rx2, Rx3 and Rx4. The transfer function of thesesignals as they traverse a wireless medium may be represented by thematrix H.

$H = {\quad\left\lbrack \begin{matrix}{g\; 11} & {g\; 12} & {g\; 13} & {g\; 14} \\{g\; 21} & {g\; 22} & {g\; 23} & {g\; 24} \\{g\; 31} & {g\; 32} & {g\; 33} & {g\; 34} \\{g\; 41} & {g\; 42} & {g\; 43} & {g\; 44}\end{matrix} \right\rbrack}$

This transfer function may also be the MIMO matrix, which may bemanipulated to verify transmission. The gij element of the matrixindicates the gain from the ith transmitter antenna port to the jthreceiver antenna port. The signal that is received in the four-portantenna is given by:

$\left\lbrack {{{Rx}\; 1},{{Rx}\; 2},{{Rx}\; 3},{{Rx}\; 4}} \right\rbrack = {\left\lbrack {{{Tx}\; 1},{{Tx}\; 2},{{Tx}\; 3},{{Tx}\; 4}} \right\rbrack {\quad{\left\lbrack \begin{matrix}{g\; 11} & {g\; 12} & {g\; 13} & {g\; 14} \\{g\; 21} & {g\; 22} & {g\; 23} & {g\; 24} \\{g\; 31} & {g\; 32} & {g\; 33} & {g\; 34} \\{g\; 41} & {g\; 42} & {g\; 43} & {g\; 44}\end{matrix} \right\rbrack + \left\lbrack {{{No}\; 1},{{No}\; 2},{{No}\; 3},{{No}\; 4}} \right\rbrack}}}$

Since it is likely that noise has been added at the receiver the No1,No2, No3 and No4 elements representing the added noise is included.

To evaluate which group/collection of different antenna ports fromdifferent remote antenna units provide the best performance, the MIMOmatrix with information using the different antenna ports selected maybe evaluated. This may include checking for potential groups of antennaports that meet the angular selection criteria as explained above andthen calculating the determinant of the MIMO matrix (H). If thedeterminant is zero, then the rank of the matrix is lower than thenumber of antenna ports and capacity is not optimal for thecorresponding group/collection of antenna ports and another group shouldbe selected. If the determinant is non-zero, then the rank is equal tothe number of antenna ports, meaning for example that a four-antennaport transmitter and four-antenna port receiver can support 4×4 MIMO.Thereafter, a suitable MIMO configuration from the will number ofantenna ports is known and a next determination can be made on thequality of that selection. The quality may be assessed as a singularvalue matrix from the MIMO matrix according to the resulting componentsof this diagonal matrix. The antenna port group with the highestsummation of values (called singular values) may provide the group ofantenna ports that can be chosen from a performance criteriaperspective. Other criteria like antenna port availability, traffic,congestion can also play a role in selecting the group of antenna ports.

The process of associating the antennas/ports of the selected ones 322,328 of the available remote antenna units with the correspondingantennas/ports of each serviced device, as noted above, may be based onany number of factors and/or variables. Once the correspondingassociations are determined or set for a certain period of time, themaster controller, signal processor or other entity may then provideinstructions to the corresponding remote antenna units 322, 328 anddevices to facilitate implementing the desired associations. This mayinclude transmitting various pieces of information and data necessary toinstruct the remote antenna units and devices to identify each other andto limit communications with the associated antennas/ports. In the caseof beamforming, the instructions may also include beamforminginstructions related to controlling or otherwise setting beamformingrelated parameters for the remote antenna units and devices relying onbeamforming, such as by instructing the remote antenna units and devicesregarding amplitude and phase or delay of wireless signaling emittedtherefrom. The amplitude and phase or delay may be dynamically adjustedin order to facilitate maintaining a desired beam, e.g., to ensure thebeams reach the desire devices without influencing neighboring remoteantenna unit/devices, and/or to facilitate shifting or pointing the beamin different directions as the devices move.

Once the associations are made and the corresponding instructions aretransmitted, the wireless signaling between the remote antenna units andthe devices, as well as the corresponding long-haul transport over thewired communication medium, may commence. The master controller, signalprocessor or other entity associated with the single communications mayperiodically update the instructions and/or change associations as moredevices require wireless signaling and/or as devices previouslyrequiring wireless signaling no longer require wireless signaling in themanner contemplated by the present invention. The dynamic nature of awireless environment may require essentially real-time adjustments inorder to ensure operations taking place based on the wireless signalingcontinue uninterrupted, i.e., at a rate sufficient to enable a userconducting a cell phone call on one of the wireless devices to continuethe cell phone call in an uninterrupted manner as the corresponding cellphone travels within the service area. The updated associations or otherparameters may be made at a rate sufficient to enable the wirelesssignaling associated therewith to be shifting or disbursed too otherones of the remote antenna units other than the remote antenna unitsinitially/originally tasked with establishing wireless signaling withthe device. As noted below, additional processes may be implemented tofacilitate assessing various operational considerations for the purposesof maintaining, creating and/or terminating wireless signaling orotherwise adjudicating capabilities of the remote antenna units andlessor devices to facilitate wireless signaling.

Block 340 relates to determining whether devices are qualified toparticipate in beamforming. The beamforming participation capabilitiesmay assess whether new devices desiring wireless signaling supportbeamforming and/or whether existing wireless devices or devices havingexisting wireless signaling are able to continue with beamforming and/orto begin beamforming. Block 342 relates to determining one or more ofthe devices being unable to perform beamforming. The devices determinedto be incapable of being forming may be removed from a list or othertable used to recognize devices having beamforming capabilities, such asto eliminate the need to subsequently check the same devices forbeamforming capabilities, e.g., the unique identifier of the device maybe kept and cross-referenced with the lack a beamforming capability sothat that device need not be checked again for beamforming relatedinformation. Block 344 relates to determining whether a device lackingbeamforming capabilities is be able to participate in non-beamformingrelated MIMO, i.e., whether the devices able to facilitate spatiallydiverse wireless signal transport where multiple signal parts generatedfrom a common signal are transported to the device at a commonfrequency. Block 346 relates to removing devices lacking such MIMOcapabilities (devices lacking MIMO capabilities may be indicated withusing a single remote antenna unit or non-MIMO signaling).

Block 348 relates to adding or keeping devices in a MIMO participationlist in the event such devices are able to facilitate MIMO signalingand/or the MIMO related wireless signaling described herein. The MIMOparticipation list may be beneficial in identifying the devices andtheir related capabilities so that the operating characteristics ofrecorded devices need not necessarily be re-assessed when the device orother device that later attempts to establish new wireless signaling orother communications from the same location or location in proximitythereto. This capability may be particularly beneficial when wirelessdevices are repeatedly or frequently used in the same location orrelative to the same remote antenna units in order to ameliorate theprocessing needed each time such devices attempt to establish newwireless signaling. Block 350 relates to updating the same table orgenerating a new table for the devices and/or remote antenna unitshaving beamforming capabilities. The table may be used to keep track ofvarious operational capabilities related to beamforming, optionally inaddition to those related to non-beamforming characteristics. Block 352relates to assessing whether any more devices require addition to thelists/tables and/or are in need of making with one or more of theavailable remote antenna units. Block 302 may be returned to for thepurposes of adding additional devices identified as requiring wirelesssignaling. In the event no additional devices are detected, anassessment can be made at Block 354 as to whether the establishedparameters or other information associated with the establish wirelesssignaling requires updating.

Block 356 relates to determining a change in parameters necessitating adifferent association and/or adjusting parameters or settings associatedwith an established association. The associations may relate to thoseestablished in Block 312 between the remote antenna units and thedevices and/or associations between the signal processor and the remoteantenna units. The association between the remote antenna units and thedevices may change for any number of reasons, such as in the event adevice moves from one location to another, a device terminatessignaling, antenna elements become available to support beamforming,etc. The association between the signal processor and the remote antennaunits may change similarly for any number of reasons, such as in theevent bandwidth becomes available over other portions of the wiredcommunication medium, currently used portions of the wired communicationmedium are allocated to higher priority processes, a device moves fromone portion of the service area to another portion such that signalsmust be carried over a different portion of the wired communicationmedium in order to reach an appropriate remote antenna unit, etc. Thewired communication medium and the signaling transported there over maybe continuously changing such that frequencies previously unavailablemay become available and previously determined to be available maybecome unavailable due to scheduling considerations or other operationalrequirements. As such, the signal processor may frequently updated a MAPor other instructional set used to control signal delivery over thewired communication medium in response to such adjustments, e.g., thefrequencies used over particular portions of the HFC may be periodicallyupdated.

Block 358 relates to the master controller providing new associationsand corresponding instructions, if necessary, to the remote antennaunits and the communicating devices in accordance with the newassociations or other changes made to the signal processor in Block 356.This may require the remote antenna units to be ready to translateincoming frequency on the HFC to outgoing frequency on the wirelessmediums, and in some cases at an associated antenna port (an antennaport may be released if an association is no longer valid). The signaltransport contemplated herein maybe facilitated with beamformed and/ornon-beamformed wireless signaling such that the beamforming steps orprocesses described herein may be eliminated in the event the remoteantenna units lack beamforming capabilities and/or it is otherwisedesirable to eliminate the extra processing or other operationalconstraints and considerations associated with beamforming. Block 360relates to determining whether the remote antenna unit supportingbeamforming have experience conditions that may result in the need tochange related operational settings. Block 362 may include the mastercontroller communicating beamforming parameters to remote antenna units.The remote antenna units may receive information regarding which antennaports are assigned to beamforming for each device. Based on the deviceand remote antenna unit relative positioning, amplitude and phase ordelay may be provided to each antenna port to facilitate implementingthe appropriate beam and/or updating antenna port beam parameters asneeded.

Block 364 relates to the signal processor sending MIMO layer data atfrequencies ultimately corresponding to associated antenna ports. Thismay include the single processor or master controller sending pilotsignals or other signals independent of signal parts associated with theinput signals desired for transport to the wireless devices. The abilityto transmit such signals may be beneficial in enabling processingrelated communications to occur over established or pre-definedchannels/frequencies so that new remote antenna units and/or new devicescan be pre-programmed to perform hand-shake operations or to otherwiseestablish initial communications with the remote antenna units and/orsingle processors. As noted above, the method for transporting signalingcontemplated by the present invention is described as including aplurality of steps, processes, considerations or other decisions. Thepresent invention fully contemplates implementing signal processing inaccordance with the foregoing without necessarily having to perform eachof the specified operations and/or without performing the specifiedoperations in the sequencer manner described above.

Optionally, the present invention contemplates integrating various rulesor other processes with the foregoing determinations, including one ormore of the following:

Rules for Signal Processor Selection: Select signal processor, based ontraffic, signal processor congestion, spectrum availability, channelloading etc.

Rules for Antenna Selection: IF UE and remote antenna unit antennassupport polarization multiplexing include option of 2 polarizationmultiplexed antenna ports from the same remote antenna unit. A 4×4 MIMOcan be implemented using 2 remote antenna units each with 2 antennaports with 2 polarizations

Rules for Antenna Selection: Select remote antenna units: that are notcongested, that are in different directions from UE that are closer toUE. IF possible evaluate selection using MIMO matrix to optimize forrank and performance.

Rules for MIMO Conditions: Is MIMO gain from single remote antenna unitclose to or equal that from antenna ports in geographically distinctremote antenna units? If yes, don't do enhanced MIMO.

Rules for Remote antenna Unit: If scheduling intelligence is added atremote antenna unit, agile switching between MIMO layer assignments toremote antenna unit antenna ports can take place, else operation is semistatic.

Rules for Qualification Criteria: MIMO capable, # of goodassociations>MIMO order, static or semi-static, enough HFC/eNodeBresources.

Rules for UE Selection: Select UE based on capacity needs, antennatypes, service level, Do not select if there is indication that UE ismoving at speed greater than a certain threshold (design parameter).

One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates how acable network is used to transmit and distribute signals from a centrallocation to remote antenna units that are controlled from this centrallocation and carry information to a targeted wireless receiver. The MIMOperformance enhancements takes place by using multiple geographicallyseparate antenna remotes. In a cable distribution network environment,these remote antenna units are equipped with radio transceivers and havethe functionality described above, which preserves diversity whiletraversing the cable environment. In one completed mode of operation inMIMO systems, one remote antenna unit is used to carry information to atarget wireless user. This implementation relies on the degree ofuncorrelation in the traversed wireless environment in addition to someuncorrelation processes subjected to each independent data set at thespatial—multiplexing-block to lead to a higher degree of uncorrelationand the resulting MIMO gain. In such systems only the remote antennaunit with the best transmissions characteristics to the target wirelessuser is used for communication. In one embodiment of this invention,using a Cable distributed LTE system, it uses processes to generatespatially multiplexed LTE signals but over antenna remotes that aregeographically separated. Because of the enhancements in data set signaluncorrelation obtained through the geographical separation of theantenna ports network distribution, the need for uncorrelating data setsat the spatial multiplexing functional block is minimized. In fact thespatial diversity enhancement obtained by this technique is expected toexceed what can be achieved by the traditionally usedspatial-multiplexing-block at the base station combined with the spatialdiversity from a single antenna location because of the uncorrelationobtained by geographical separation of antennas. This is particularlytrue in the case of smaller cell networks where spatial diversity isdiminished due to the shorter distances between antenna and wirelesssubscriber.

In this example the distribution of independent data sets to remoteantenna units have been shown with a minimum granularity of antenna portpairs. These could also be distributed into single antenna ports but areshown here in pairs to leverage the uncorrelation capabilities achievedthrough cross polarization or other polarization multiplexingtechniques. However, depending on the receiver capabilities forreceiving spatially diverse signals it could use any number of antennas,resulting in a higher order MIMO. One mechanism by which remote antennaunits and physical antenna ports are selected is through a mapping ofthe specific channel frequencies within the cable environment to theoptimum physical antenna ports distributed across the cable network. Forexample, operating in a conventional cellular scenario the differentremote antenna units would be evaluated to determine which antenna portis the most suitable to be used for communication with the targetwireless user. The best would be chosen for communication. In one aspectof this invention, the ranking based on performance of the remoteantenna units would be leveraged to select not one but multiple remoteantenna units based on the capability of the UE or wireless end device.If the UE has a capability of 4×4 MIMO you could use any of thefollowing configurations examples:

1) Use four highest performing remote antenna units with one physicalantenna port used from each remote antenna unit.

2) Use two highest performing remote antenna units with two physicalantenna ports used from each remote antenna unit. In each remote antennaunit spatial diversity can be leveraged using polarization diversitybetween the two ports co-located in each remote antenna unit.

3) Use three highest performing antenna remotes with two physicalantenna ports used from one antenna remote and the remaining two antennaremotes with one antenna port each being used. In the antenna remotewith two antenna ports spatial diversity can be leveraged usingpolarization diversity between the two antenna ports used.

The assessment of which sets of antenna remotes and physical antennaports are used, may occur in the same fashion and with the samefrequency as a traditional system would use for assessing whether oneantenna remote is still optimal for the single antenna remote case. Inother embodiments of this disclosure additional complexity in theselection of which antenna ports should be used is considered. Trafficconsideration, services provided, application level requirements,channel utilization and remote antenna unit capabilities are some of thecriteria that can be added to the antenna port selection process. Whenmultiple criteria are used, a global optimization process must takeplace to configure this cable distributed antenna system in a way thatmeets the target requirements for all end-stations. In MIMO systemswhere only a single remote antenna unit is used, thereby having all thephysical antenna ports co-located, it forces the system to rely on goodspatial diversity in the physical port to port paths to have a highperformance. This performance is measured through the MIMO transferfunction matrix with elements hi,j where the matrix has to maintainmaximum rank as well as high values. A good multipath environmentimproves to some extend the MIMO transfer function performance. Howevereven in the best of cases, the degree of uncorrelation is limited andthe gain and resulting modulation orders that can be achieved arelimited. The degree of uncorrelation in a shorter path case is likelylower than a longer path. The use of geographically separate physicalantenna ports provides a natural optimal spatial diversity configurationwith uncorrelated data paths. This invention may leverage the cablenetwork and the use of geographically separate physical antenna port toachieve optimum MIMO performance.

One aspect of this invention describes how a distributed antenna systemis used to optimize MIMO performance through in situ beamforming,leveraging target wireless receiver location information extractedlocally at the antenna site. In one aspect, it is proposed to use theasymmetric antenna distribution typically found in the field between theremote antenna units and the handset antennas in the mobile devices(user equipment/UE). In one proposed embodiment of a cable distributedantenna system, it is intended to add beamforming functionality to theMIMO enhancement mechanism. Leveraging geographically separated physicalantenna ports, it is proposed to enable the use of just 4 of 8 physicalantenna ports in a 4×4 MIMO system using duplicate antennas for theimplementation of a high performance 4×4 MIMO system. The additional 4physical antenna ports used to implement an 4×4 MIMO without beamformingcan now be used to add beamforming and further enhance the performanceof the 4×4 MIMO.

In order to save cable distribution resources, it is advantageous to usethe cable transport medium only to carry independent data setinformation. Along with the data set, information regarding the locationof the target and the location of the remote antenna unit (Latitude andlongitude) can be extracted at the remote antenna unit site using aspecial UE device which is designed to sniff and extract locationinformation. This information is obtained locally at the remote antennaunit site, additional beam-forming processing takes place to leverageunused antenna ports to produce beam steering. Most of the gains fromspatial diversity have already been achieved and the capability of thesystem could be limited to a 4×4 MIMO. In this fashion additional gainwith beam forming/steering can be obtained. This result in a veryefficient MIMO transfer function matrix as the uncorrelation throughspatial diversity by transmitting from different locations iseffectively combined with an increase in gain achieved throughbeamforming. Location information that provides with the necessaryinformation to generate beamforming can be carried in-band or can bededuced through triangulation mechanisms from the signal strength of thedifferent antennas in the area around the wireless device.

FIG. 12 illustrates a flowchart 400 of a method for controlling a signalprocessor to facilitate wireless signaling in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The method may be embodiedin a non-transitory computer-readable medium, computer program productor other construct having computer-readable instructions, code,software, logic and the like. The instructions may be operable with aprocessor or other logically executing device of the signal processorand/or another one or more of the devices/components described herein tofacilitate controlling the signaling processor and/or the otherdevices/components in the manner contemplated by the present inventionto facilitate delivering wireless signaling. The method is predominatelydescribed for exemplary non-limiting purpose with respect to at least aportion of the wireless signaling, or corresponding intermediarysignaling, being long-hauled carried over a wired and/or wirelinecommunication medium, such as but not necessarily limited to cable orhybrid-fiber coax (hfc) network. The long-haul or intermediary signalingmay be facilitated with processing or other controls performed with thesignal processor sufficient to provide wired transport over a greaterdistance than the eventual wireless signaling transport, therebyleverage off of the economies associated with wired transport while alsofacilitating final interaction with wireless devices.

Block 402 relates to a master controller or other suitable entitycollecting or otherwise determining resources available to a signalprocessor to facilitate transporting signals over wired mediums/networksto particular service areas. The master controller may also send controlmessages after sniffing in-band messages (in the signal) that containdesired frequency information. The resources may be considered in termsof data or RF spectrum representative of data rates, frequencies andother parameters related to transporting wired signaling from the signalprocessor, which may vary depending on the particular operatingconstraints and/or other variables associated with each portion of thewired medium. The service area may correspond with geographical areastraversed with the fiber nodes or other wired trunks within the domainof the signal processor, e.g., the area associated with each tap orreachable through a wire interconnecting the tap with one of the endstations. The geographical areas may be identified with globalpositioning system (GPS) markers/vectors, latitude and longitude and/orother references sufficient to represent the wired areas reachable fromthe signal processor. In the event multiple wired paths are availablebetween the signal processor and an end station, a user equipment orother termination point, those overlapping or multi-path determinationsmay be identified along with the spectrum or other signaling parametersassociated therewith.

Block 404 relates to collecting or otherwise determining resourcesavailable to the signal processor to facilitate transporting signalsover the wireless mediums/networks of particular service areas. Theservice areas may correspond with geographical areas reachable from eachend station, e.g., the wired and/or wireless reach of each end stationto facilitate continued signal transport. The end stations having anantenna or other capabilities sufficient to facilitate continuedwireless signaling, i.e., signaling beyond the physical locationassociated with a tap or device physically connected by a wire thereto,may be referred to as remote antenna units. The spectrum available tothe remote antenna units may be identified in a similar manner to thewired spectrum, at least in so far as identifying beamformingcapabilities, data rates, frequencies, protocols and/or otheroperational constraints and a corresponding geographical position of thewireless interfaces and their corresponding coverage range/reach.Optionally, overlapping signaling areas, i.e., areas reachable bymultiple wired output interfaces may be identified in order to identifythose areas that may be reachable by multiple wireless signals, e.g., aparticularly wireless end station may be reachable with wired,intermediary signaling carried over different portions of the wiredmedium and wirelessly reachable from multiple, overlapping wirelessantennas attached to two or more of the different portions of the wiredmedium.

Block 406 relates to determining end stations, user equipment and/or orwireless devices intended to receive wireless signaling from one of theend stations having wireline-to-wireless capabilities. The wirelessdevices may be identified as a function of signaling exchanged with oneor more of the remote antenna units, such as when exchanging signals aspart of a registration or authentication undertaken when attempting toaccess a corresponding wireless network (each remote antenna may beconfigured to support a wireless network and/or regulate the wirelessdevices enabled to receive wireless signals therefrom as a function ofpermissions granted during the registration/authentication). Thewireless devices may be identified using Internet protocol (IP)addresses, media access control (MAC) addresses or other identifierssufficiently unique to differentiate one wireless device from another.Wireless transmission related capabilities, operational constraints,messaging requirements and other information may be collected whenidentifying the wireless devices in order to assess the wirelesscapabilities of each device. Location and/or travel related informationmay be determined for the identified wireless devices using GPScoordinates, latitude and longitude, dead-reckoning, signaling strength(RSSI) and the like. Optionally, the collected information may besufficient to identify a name, wireless capabilities/restrictions andlocation for each of the wireless devices within or likely to be withinthe corresponding service area. The wireless devices may be identifiedusing low order modulations such as QPSK or BPSK to have a widercoverage and a larger pool of end stations with wireless and wirelinecapabilities associated with wireless devices which may provide agreater selection of association options between wireless and wirelinedevices

Blocks 408, 410 relate to analyzing and assigning HFC wireline RFspectrum and wireless RF spectrum available within the service area tofacilitate wired and/or wireless signaling. The present inventioncontemplates facilitating wired signaling, such as to the first endstation, while also simultaneously supporting wireless signaling, suchas to the second end station, where at least a portion of the wirelesssignaling is at least temporarily carried over the wired communicationmedium as an intermediary, wired signal. The RF spectrum assigned tofacilitate this combined use of wired and wireless signaling may bedynamically selected in order to facilitate maximizing bandwidth andthroughput of the system and/or according to operational constraintsassociated with the wireless signaling, i.e., certain portions of thesystem may have licensing restrictions or other requirements dictatinguse of particular portions of the RF spectrum. Optionally, the RFspectrum may be assigned and/or allocated differently depending onwhether the corresponding signaling is traveling in a downlink (DL) awayfrom the signal processor or an uplink (UL) direction toward the signalprocessor and/or on a per receiver (Rx) and transmitter (Tx) basis. Forexample, if more wireless devices are expected at a particular portionof the service area, more spectrum and/or other signaling resources maybe allocated to that service area in comparison to other portions of theservice area in order to ensure a desired quality of service.

Block 412 relates to determining control parameters for the signalprocessor. The signal processor may transmit signals through common RFport. The signal processor may have knowledge of which remote antennaunit end stations and which of their specific antennas are associatedwith the wireless UE end station it is targeting as the ultimaterecipient of the signal. The signal processor can select the channelfrequency on which to send the signal based on the remote antennaunit/antenna element mapping to the UE. Alternatively the signalprocessor doesn't have this knowledge but just transports this messagesto the remote antenna units. The control parameters may be used tofacilitate instructing and/or controlling the remote antennas tofacilitate the contemplated wireless signaling within the constraints ofthe available RF spectrum. The wireless control parameters may defineone-to-one groupings where a single antenna element within a remoteantenna communications with a single wireless device and/or many-to-onegroupings of two or more antenna elements within one or more remoteantenna units communicate with individual wireless devices in order toprovided enhanced spatial diversity, i.e., using spatially separateremote antennas to communicate with the same wireless device. Thewireless control parameters by defining one to one grouping or one tomany grouping could also be used generate beams to exclusively operateusing beamforming or combining beamforming and spatial diversity forenhanced MIMO performance. The remote antennas groups may be dynamicallyassigned and re-assigned at certain intervals in order to providecontinuous service for wireless devices moving in and out of the servicearea. Based on estimated traffic loading, geographical location and/orcapabilities of the end station with wireline and wireless capabilitiesand the capabilities of a signal processor, pairing between signalprocessor and one or more remote antenna units may take place.

Block 414 relates to determining wired control parameters for the signalprocessor. The wired control parameters may be used to facilitateinstructing and/or controlling the delivery of wired signals in theuplink and/or downlink directions. The control parameters may beconstructed to facilitate allocating part of spectrum for the wired-onlysignaling and/or the intermediary signaling required to deliver thewireless signals choose the remote antennas. The wired controlparameters may based on estimated traffic loading originated from thewired end stations and the wired end stations location in relation tothe network topology, the capabilities of the wired end stations, numberof channels and frequencies to carry traffic from these end stations areselected. The wired control parameters and the wireless controlparameters may be coordinated and balanced relative to other systemloads, bandwidth, etc. to facilitate allocating and dynamically adjustresources in a manner aimed at facilitating current and future signalingdemands. A MAP or other network related control structures may begenerated and distributed to the relevant signal processors (multiplesignal processors may be used on per feed basis or per end device basis)to implement the desired controls.

Block 416 relates to generating mapping and/or other informationsufficient to facilitate assigning wireless and/or wireline end stationsto one or more signal processors. The signal processors may beconfigured to based on the frequencies and channels assigned to eachdevice and its correspondence of such frequencies and channels accordingto the control parameters specified above. The mapping may assignsignaling responsibilities for each end station requiring signaling toeach available signal processor such that each of the feeds desired fortransport are processed with at least on signal processor, andoptionally one or more remote antennas in the event wireless transportis to follow wireline transport. The mapping may be dynamic at least inthat a particular signal processor may support signaling for various endstations (e.g., user equipment and/or remote antennas) at intervalssufficient to facilitate essentially simultaneous communications withthe multiple end stations.

Block 418 relates to configuring the signal processors based on currentconditions, such as traffic, quantity of receiving end stations,capabilities, etc. These conditions may be periodically evaluated andthe configuration adjusted as changes occur. Block 420 relates to thecontrol and adjustment of the gain and/or tilt (frequency dependentgain) of the front end to obtain the desired power level to drive theoptical transmitter of the HFC network. Block 422 relates to the controland the selection of the modulation order in the signal basebandprocessor to carry the appropriate amount of data in the channel. Thismay be determined based on channel conditions and the capabilities ofthe end station (UE) and the signal processor. In this manner, Blocks420, 422 may included setting values or implementing other controls forthe local oscillators and/or amplifiers being used to facilitate thesignal processing contemplated herein. The related frequency, gain,tilt, loss, etc. may be dynamically adjusted depending on the signalfeeds and/or the intended termination point (end station, userequipment, remote antenna unit, etc.) so as to achieve the notedbenefits of the signal processors described above. Optionally, in thecase of signal processor having capabilities to combine multiple signalcomponents (e.g., h11+h22), an alternative Block 424 may be instigatedto facilitate related controls. Block 424 performs an aggregation ofsignals that can be done using guardbands or alternative if the signalsare frequency synchronized following a specific frequency spacing thisaggregation is done without using guardbands resulting in a moreefficient use of the spectrum.

FIG. 13 illustrates a remote antenna unit 500 in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The remote antenna unit500 may correspond with one of the end stations having capabilitiessufficient to facilitate continued wireless signaling with another endstation, user equipment (UE) or wireless device, e.g., the third endstation 40 and the fourth end station 42. The remote antenna unit 500may be configured to provide a transition between wireline/cable mediumrelated signaling and wireless medium related signaling using an antennaequipped intelligent transceiver system. The remote antenna unit 500 maybe configured to enable the provisioning of converged wireline andwireless services as well as traditional wireless services. This remoteantenna unit 500, at least when compared to a remote radio head, mayhave a low complexity and enable the extension of the wirelessdistribution network reach in a similar fashion to a radio accessnetwork (RAN). The remote antenna unit 500 may include a coupler 502configured to receive the intermediary wired signaling (i.e., signalingintended to be subsequently converted to wireless signaling) using aconnection to the wired communication medium 34. A diplexer 503 may beconfigured to facilitate signal selection and guidance based onfrequency, such as to differentiate uplink and downlink signal.

The coupler 502 may be used to enable transporting a portion of theintermediary signals to other components within the remote antenna unit500. These intermediary signals may be processed further in the remoteantenna unit 50 by frequency shifting, and by adjusting the amplitude,delay or phase of the signal prior to wirelessly transmitting thesesignal out of the antenna ports. This represents minor RF processingcompared to the processing that takes places in traditional remoteantenna units where the digitized RF signal is transported usingbaseband optics (i.e. via the high bandwidth of a common public radiointerface (CPRI)). While the use of digitized intermediate RF signalingis contemplated, the use of RF signaling may be beneficial in enablingor maintaining use of existing pro-RF features and devices, such as butnot necessarily limited to those employed in HFC/cable networks. Theremote antenna unit 500 may include an intelligent device 504, which forexemplary non-limiting purposes is labeled as an engine, capable ofdetecting the uplink and downlink paths and the corresponding signaling,optionally in the manner that a cable UE would. The engine 504 may beconfigured to sniff location and other pertinent information tocalculate antenna illumination parameters or other included instructionsufficient to facilitate controlling the remote antenna unit 500 totransmit the wireless signaling. Optionally, additional beamformingcontrol information such as beamwidth, desired beam and null directioninformation or power level may be determined to achieve intendedperformance for the transmitted wireless signaling. A control link (bus)506 from the engine 506 to various controllable elements of the remoteantenna unit 500 may be used to facilitate communication instructions orotherwise controlling operations associated therewith.

At least some of the controllable aspects of the remote antenna unit 500are labeled as transmit (Tx) frequency (freq) control, gain control, Rxbeam control, Tx beam control and Rx freq control. Each of thesecontrollable features may be controlled with the engine 504 as afunction information recovered from the intermediary signaling(signaling over the wireline medium 34) and/or transmitted thereto fromthe signal processor 12 and/or master controller 20. The engine 504 mayoperate in this manner to facilitate implementing the various signalmanipulations contemplated by the present invention to facilitateinterfacing between the wireless medium 110 and the wired medium 34. Theengine 504 may dynamically vary the related controls according to acurrent network MAP or other operational constraints, optionally in amanner sufficient to achieve essentially real-time adjustments necessaryto facilitate interface multiple feeds and/or signaling through aplurality of antenna ports 510, 512, 514, 516. The MAP information maycorrespond with that described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/954,079, entitled Method and System Operable to Facilitate SignalTransport Over a Network, the disclosure of which is hereby Incorporatedby reference in its entirety. Four antenna ports 510, 512, 514, 516 maybe associated with a single antenna element (the number of antennaelements and antenna ports for a particular antenna may vary) tofacilitate 4×4 MIMO communications for exemplary, non-limiting purposeas more or less antenna ports 510, 512, 514, 516 may be utilized withoutdeviating from the scope and contemplation of the present invention.

One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates a scenariowhere the remote antenna unit 500 is located in a coaxial segmentextending directly from an optical node (e.g., without actives or tapsin between), and thereby, enabling frequencies used for upstream anddownstream in the wired network above 1 GHz frequency range. Thefrequency range from 1 GHz to 3 GHz may used with the benefit ofavoiding consumption of the spectrum resources that may be allocated tocable services and other applications required to operate below 1 GHz.Optionally, the use of signaling within the 1-3 GHz range may be enabledacross the network if the existing active devices, i.e. amplifiers areby-passed by amplifiers and filters that enable the transmissionchannels that the system is using above 1 GHz. The coupler 502attachment to a rigid coaxial section of the HFC network 34 may bebeneficial in minimizing attenuation to the closest active node, whichmay be a nearby optical node, and thereby facilitating use of the1-3+GHz range. If a relatively low number of remote antenna units 500are operating in the 1-3 GHz are needed, special high gain amplifierscan be used and located in a coaxial segment directly connected to theoptical node without unduly increasing system costs.

The remote antenna unit 500 may consist of amplified, filtered and/orfrequency shifted downlink and uplink data paths. Duplexers 520, 522,524, 526 may be used close to the antenna ports 510, 512, 514, 516 toconnect both (UL & DL) direction paths to the same antenna element(separate antenna ports are shown as being part of the same antennaelement). Beamforming components (labeled as weighted Rxn and Txn whichmodify the signal using RF mixers and corresponding signal delaycontrols) may be used at the antenna ports 510, 512, 514, 516 tofacilitate implementing the contemplated adjustable delay components forbeam steering and weighting factor multiplier control elements forshaping beam and nulls. The weights or multiplication factors and thedelays may be used to shape the radiation pattern so that most of theenergy (main beam) concentrates towards the intended target and minimumradiation energy or nulls are directed towards the interference sources.The delays may be individually adjusted on the signals traversing eachantenna element such that the wireless signals add constructively(in-phase) when they reach the intended target. The weighting ormultiplication factors contribute to the shaping of the beam andminimization of the energy in unwanted directions. The remote antennaunit 500 may be frequency agile such that the wireless operatingfrequency can be adjusted to the corresponding licensed spectrum, i.e.,the spectrum authorized for use at or from the each of the remoteantenna units 500 (some antennas may leverage licenses for differentspectrum uses and/or the spectrum usage may correspond with thatconfigured to the wireless devices receiving the transmitted wirelesssignaling—shown to be emitted as h11, h22, h33, h44 and effectivelyreceived as g11, g12, h13, g14, etc.). A gain control mechanism,optionally including a plurality of fixed or controllable amplifiers528, 530, 532, 534, may be included to help in dense operating scenariosto limit interference to other RF remote antennas, such as by increasingor decreasing signal power levels according to beamforming parameters ornon-beamforming parameters (e.g., to prevent/limit interference whenomnidirectional or fixed-direction antennas are used).

The gain control mechanism may be controlled as a function of commandstransmitted from the engine 504 to the corresponding amplifiers 528,530, 532, 534. The signal processing preceding the gain control may beconfigured in accordance with the present invention to employ afrequency converter 536, 538, 540, 542 for each path (e.g., h11, h22,h33, h44) in order to facilitate converting the frequency diversesignals carried over the wireline medium 34 to signals havingfrequencies sufficient for transport over the wireless medium 110. Theconverters 536, 538, 540, 542 are shown to each include separate,independent oscillators, transmit synthesizers and RF mixers operable toenable conversion of multiple, independently placed data paths atdifferent frequencies. Each of the local oscillators may be frequencylocked to a master oscillator (not shown) to achieve frequency lockingand enable the operation without guardbands on the HFC environment. Thesignals transported over the wireline medium 34 may be frequencydiverse, at least in that the signals may be transmitted from acorresponding one of the signaling processor converters (e.g., 80, 82,84, 86) and thereafter converted at the remote antenna unit 500 prior totransport (such as in the manner illustrated in FIG. 4 with respect torelated converters 128, 130, 132, 134). The frequency converters 536,538, 540, 542 may be independently controlled to output the signals h11,h22, h33, h44 at the same or different frequencies. In the case whenMIMO and beamforming signals are directed to the same UE or end-devicethe converters 536, 538, 540, 542 output the signals at the samefrequency. In MIMO, because the wireline signals are coming fromdifferent wireline channels, the mixing frequencies at the converters536, 538, 540, 542 may be needed to be different in order to place thesignals at the same frequency in the wireless domain. In beamforming thesame wireline signal may be used in each antenna port 510, 512, 514,516, in this case the same mixing frequencies can be used in each of theconverters 536, 538, 540, 542. If h11, h22, h33 and h44 are to be outputto the same UE, the output frequencies of each may be the same (FIG. 4),and if some of the signals are to be output to different UEs, then theoutput frequencies may vary according to the intended recipient (FIG.5). Independent control of frequency allows for better use of resourcesas one remote antenna unit could be simultaneously be serving twoend-devices but through different antenna ports.

The use of independent local oscillators may enable tuning to varyingfrequencies of the incoming signals (h11, h22, h33, h44), e.g., eachoscillator may use different mixing frequency when converting to acommon output frequency. Filters/amplifiers 544, 546, 548, 550 may beincluded for filtering signals before subsequent processing, such as tofacilitate removing noise, interferences or other signal componentsbefore the signals are subsequently amplified and/or passed for furtherprocessing, e.g., to remove noise prior to being further propagatedand/or magnified. The filters 544, 546, 548, 550 and subsequent gaincontrollers 528, 530, 532, 534 may be optional components that may beomitted and/or controlled to pass through signals without manipulationin the event the signals output from the converters 536, 538, 540, 542have sufficient orthogonality to enable further, non-interfering ornoise susceptible transport. Optionally, the filters 544, 546, 548, 550may be tunable to convert the frequencies of incoming signals to desiredfrequencies. Optionally, the filters 544, 546, 548 and 550 may beeliminated sufficient orthogonality occurs across channels (e.g., h11,h22, h33, h44) to produce an interference free operation. Instead offrequency multiplexing the signals adjacent to each other, and therebyrequiring sharp roll-off filtering, the separate oscillators 536, 538,540, 542 may be used to maintain orthogonality by placing thesubcarriers of different signals exactly an integer multiple of thesubcarrier spacing. This may allow the placement of the orthogonalsignal carriers without guard-bands and/or the use of a filter(s).

A splitter 552 may be included to facilitate separating incoming signalsprior to delivery to the appropriate one of the converters 536, 538,540, 542. The splitter 552 may split signals to each of the converterswhen 4×4 MIMO is active. Splitter branches my be left unused whensplitting signals to a lower number of branches. Only two of theconverters 536, 538, 540, 542 are used when 2×2 MIMO is active. Adifferent number of active branches may be used to split signals to anyone or more of the converters 536, 538, 540, 542 depending on otherdesired operating parameters. The splitter 552 is shown to be separatefrom an RF combiner 554 included in the uplink path to combine andmodulate signals for transport over the wired medium 34. The combiner554 may operate as a function of signals received from the engine 504 toenable one or more signals to be combined for upstream transport. Theupstream signals may correspond with wireless signals received at theantenna ports 510, 512, 514, 516 and then subsequently processed withseparate converters 560, 562, 564, 566 and filters/amplifiers 570, 572,574, 576 of uplink filtering and/or amplification (controllable with theengine 540 according to demands/configuration of the wired medium 34).The uplink converters 560, 562, 564, 566 may be configured similarly tothe downlink converters 536, 538, 540, 542 with respect to includingindependently controllable synthesizers, oscillators and RF mixer. Theengine 504 may control the converters 536, 538, 540, 542 to facilitateadding frequency diversity to the upstream traveling signals prior totransport over the wired medium 34. The engine 504 may essentiallyperform operations on the uplink that are the inverse of those performedon the downlink, including implementing related beamforming processing.

While four antenna ports 510, 512, 514, 516 are illustrated, the remoteantenna unit 500 can be extended to a include more or less antenna ports510, 512, 514, 516. The number of corresponding antennas elements may beselected to provide enough elements and the proper path controlmechanisms to enable the use or one or more antenna elements exclusivelyfor MIMO, exclusively for beamforming and/or a combination of both. Theengine 504 may serve as an intelligent communication device that inaddition to generating the beamforming parameters adjustable on a per Txor Rx burst basis, can provide state information of the remote antennaunit 500, including enabling the antenna element delay and amplitudeweighting components associated with steering beams and nulls ascommanded. Optionally, these control messages can be carried out in-bandin the wireless protocol from a central location, thereby avoiding aneed to modify the existing wireless protocol. The remote antenna unit500 may also include modulation conversion capabilities, such as whenthe wireline channel will support significantly higher order modulationthan the wireless channel. This capability may be advantageous infacilitating decode/demodulate of the incoming wireless signal on theuplink and re-encode/re-modulate to a higher order modulation to savespectrum for downlink communications over the wired medium 34. The addedcomplexity to the remote antenna unit 500 associated therewith may beoffset by savings for plant (wired medium) spectrum. In a similarmanner, spectral de-compression via higher order modulation could beused in the downlink when the wireline signal is lower bandwidth withhigh order modulation as it transits to the remote antenna unit 500. Theremote antenna unit 500 may make the corresponding conversion to a widerbandwidth signal and/or with lower order modulation more suitable forthe wireless medium before being transmitted wirelessly.

FIG. 14 illustrates a flowchart 600 for a method of controlling a remoteantenna unit to facilitate wireless signaling in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The method may be embodiedin a non-transitory computer-readable medium, computer program productor other construct having computer-readable instructions, code,software, logic and the like. The instructions may be operable with anengine, processor or other logically executing device of the remoteantenna and/or another one or more of the devices/components describedherein to facilitate controlling the signaling processor and/or theother devices/components in the manner contemplated by the presentinvention to facilitate delivering wireless signaling (e.g., a mastercontroller). The method is predominately described for exemplarynon-limiting purpose with respect to at least a portion of the wirelesssignaling, or corresponding intermediary signaling, being long-hauledcarried over a wired and/or wireline communication medium, such as butnot necessarily limited to cable or hybrid-fiber coax (HFC) network. Thelong-haul or intermediary signaling may be facilitated with processingor other controls performed with the signal processor to provide wiredtransport over a greater distance than the eventual wireless signalingtransport, thereby leverage off of the economies associated withcentralized wired distribution system while also facilitating finalinteraction with wireless devices.

Block 602 relates to the engine receiving control parameters associatedwith processing to be performed on the uplink and downlink travelingsignals. The control parameter may be determined by recovering relatedinstructions from control signaling being carried over the wired medium34. The control parameters are noted to include downlink (DL) and uplink(UL) receive (Rx) and transmit (Tx) frequencies. The Rx and Txfrequencies may specify frequencies or values for each converter of theremote antenna, typically with each oscillator (local oscillator (LO))operating at a different frequency during 4×4 MIMO operation. Thefrequencies may be used to set various operating parameters for theconverters, including frequency related settings for each of thesynthesizers, oscillators and/or RF mixers. The frequencies may bedesignated in a MAP or other data set carried in signaling to the remoteantenna and/or otherwise provided thereto. The MAP may specifyfrequencies that vary over time as a function of network traffic and/orspectrum licensed to UEs, optionally on a per oscillator basis or in anyother manner suitable for enabling the engine to determine frequenciesappropriate for each oscillator. The ability to set and vary thefrequencies of each oscillator and/or the other frequency adjustingcomponents in this manner may be beneficial in enabling remote antennasto facilitate wireless signaling with various types of devices and/orwithin the confines of different spectrum constraints.

Blocks 604 and 606 relates to configuring antenna elements andoscillators of the remote antenna unit. The configuration of the antennaelements may include assessing when each antenna is to be active andtheir corresponding operating characteristics and capabilities, e.g.,beamforming support, transmission range, number of elements availablefor use, etc. The engine may determine the operating capabilities of theantennas and implement the related controls according the schedulingspecified within the MAP and/or otherwise associated with the signalingdesired for wireless transport. The configuration of the antennas may becontrolled and adjusted as the frequencies or other operational settingsof the MAP change. The configuration of the oscillators may includeadjusting/setting each of the oscillators to match wireless frequencyMAP assignments. Block 608 relates to performing further adjustments tothe remote antenna unit to facilitate the desired wireless signaling.The further adjustments may include adjusting parameters of theamplifiers and/or filters used to facilitate signal processing andtransmission following frequency conversion performed with theoscillators. One such adjustment may include adjusting a gain of theamplifiers according to beamforming parameters, signaling range or othervariables necessary to facilitate the desired wireless signaling.

Block 610 relates to determining whether all the components supportingmodification (or illumination) corresponding to each of the antennaelements of the remote antenna unit have been configured. As multipleantennas may be configured to facilitate MIMO signaling, i.e.coordinated wireless transmission from multiple antennas of the remoteantenna, each of the antennas associated therewith may need to beconfigured prior to instigating the related wireless signaling. Once thefrequencies and/or gains are set for each antenna element and/or foreach signal (e.g., h11, h22, h33, h44, etc.), Block 612 relates toassessing position, movement or other variable states of the UE intendedto receive the wireless signaling and adjusting beamforming parametersor other settings associated with the wireless signaling to direct thewireless signaling towards a moving UE and/or to make other adjustmentsassociated with achieving optimum beamforming parameters. The engine maybe configured to uncover information regarding the UE from registrationpackets or other signaling exchanged with the UE, e.g., signalingassociated with granting or assessing whether to grant the UE access toa wireless network of the remote antenna unit. Optionally, the enginemay determine latitude and longitude values for the UE in order toassess its movement and/or position in order to ensure desiredbeamforming, i.e., that the beam is directed towards the UE. In theevent the remote antenna unit lacks beamforming capabilities or is anomnidirectional device, Block 612 may relate to determining whether theUE is within wireless signaling range.

Block 614 relates to synchronizing downlink and uplink transmissions andupdating antenna illumination parameters is necessary to optimizetransmission. The synchronization may correspond with switching theantenna ports and/or other controllable settings of the remote antennato transmit and/or receive wireless signaling according to schedulinginformation included within the MAP. In the event each antenna port islimited to facilitating one of uplink or downlink transmissions, thesynchronization may correspond with coordinating use of antenna ports inorder to facilitate MIMO signaling where multiple antenna ports mayrequire synchronization in order to facilitate uplink/downlinksignaling. The antenna illumination parameters may be updated asnecessary to facilitate the uplink/downlink signaling, i.e., theillumination parameters may be set to facilitate downlink communicationto a first UE and thereafter adjusted to facilitate uplink communicationwith a second, different UE. Block 616 relates to an optional processwhere information related to the synchronization and adjustedillumination parameters may be transmitted from the remote antenna tothe master controller and/or signal processor. The transmission of suchinformation may be beneficial in agile environments where UEs may berapidly transitioning from one remote antenna to another such that themaster controller and/or single processor may need to instruct anotherremote antenna to prepare and/or begin facilitate wireless signalingwith such agile UEs in order to prevent a loss/disruption of service.

Block 618 relates to performing modulation/frequency multiplexing inorder to aggregate received wireless signaling for uplink transmission.The multiplexing may correspond with the remote antenna preparingreceived wireless signaling for further wireline signaling. In the eventthe remote antenna is simultaneously receiving wireless signals fromdifferent UEs, Block 618 may relate to the remote antenna combining theassociated signals into one uplink transmission, e.g., by combining twoQPSK signals into a single 16 QAM signal. The remote antenna may includean RF combiner or other multiplexing device to facilitate multiplexingor otherwise facilitating processing associated with converting wirelessrelated signaling for wireline transport. The remote antenna mayschedule transmission of the uplink, wireline signaling according toparameters specified within the MAP. The uplink signal may be receivedat an associated signal processor and thereafter further processed forsubsequent transport. In this manner, one non-limiting aspect of thepresent invention may be to leverage the capabilities of an HFCinfrastructure to support long-haul, wireline transport of wirelessoriginating signaling (signaling received at a remote antenna) andterminating signaling (signaling transmitted from a remote antenna).

FIG. 15 illustrates a user equipment (UE) 700 in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The UE 700 may beconsidered as cable UE or other wireline UE configured to interfacesignals between the wired communication medium 34 and a user device,such as but not limited to the end station 22 shown in FIG. 1 (e.g.,signal processor 48 in FIG. 2 b). The UE 700 may be customer premiseequipment (CPE), a modem, a settop box (STB), a television or virtuallyany other type of device configured to process signals transported inaccordance with the present. These signals may be frequency-multiplexedsignals that have been properly filtered so that they can be multiplexedon separate channels in the upstream and downstream spectrum. In thecable environment the upstream and downstream frequency ranges may besplit, e.g., the upstream may from 5 MHz to 42 MHz or 65 MHz, but it maybe expanded to 85 MHz or 204 MHz or greater and the downstream frequencyrange may be 50 MHz to 1 GHz but could be expanded from 258 MHz to 1.2GHz or 1.8 GHz, optionally following a plant upgrade. The UE 700 may beconsidered as a 2×2 MIMO signal processor at least in that anetwork-side exchanged signal 702 in both the uplink and downlinkdirection is shown to comprise a first signal (h11) and a second signal(h22) generated as function of one input signal (e.g., device-sidebidirectional signal 706 when traveling in the uplink direction andsignal 44, 100 when traveling in the downlink direction).

The UE 700 may include a plurality of components configured tofacilitate processing signals for wireline exchange with the wiredcommunication medium 34 and/or a device associated with the device-sidesignal 706. The components are shown for exemplary non-limiting purposeswith respect to being arranged into three basic components: a basebandprocessor unit 708, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) 710 anda front end 712. The baseband processor 708 unit may be similar to theabove described baseband processors and include various devices (e.g.,the devices 52, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76 and/or 116) to facilitatesimilar processing of uplink signaling and the facilitate equivalent,inverse processing for downlink signaling. The baseband processor unit708 may be configured to consolidate downlink signal traveling overindividual data paths as a digitally modulated RF signal for output andto process uplink signaling for frequency modulation with the RFIC 710.Rather than having the baseband processor 708 in a different locationthan the RFIC 710 and the front end 712, one non-limiting aspect of thepresent invention contemplates having them co-located, optionally with aJoint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) specification(JESD207) interface 716 or an equivalent or otherwise sufficientinterface as a connection piece to a transmit/receive (Tx/Rx) digitalinterface 718. The JESD207 interface 158 may eliminate the need forconnecting the baseband processor using a fiber optic link for carryingthe digitized RF therebetween.

At least in the downlink direction, the RFIC 710 may be the componentthat uses the digital data paths signals and directs them through anappropriate analog-to-digital (ADC) converter 722, 724, 726, 728 to besubsequently converted to desired frequencies. The RFIC 710 may beconfigured in accordance with the present invention to employindependent local oscillators (LO) 730, 732 and receive synthesizers734, 736 for each path (h11, h22). The use of separate oscillators maybe beneficial in allowing for multiple independently placed data pathsat different frequencies to enhance frequency orthogonality, e.g., thedata path output from the OFDM signal 70 may be converted from afrequency (F1) that is different from a frequency (F2) of the data pathoutput from the OFDM signal 72. (An oscillator common to both paths(h11, h22), at least when connected in the illustrated manner, would beunable to generated the separate frequencies F1, F2.) Filters 742, 744,746, 748 may be included for an in-phase portion (h11(in), h22(in)) anda quadrature portion (h11(quad), h22(quad)) to filter signals beforetransmission to the baseband processor 708, such as to facilitateremoving noise, interferences or other signal components after thein-band and quadrature portions pass through RF mixers operating incooperation with the oscillators 730, 732. Optionally, the filters 742,744, 746, 748 may be tunable, e.g., according to the frequency of thesignaling from the OFDM signals 70, 72 as the OFDM frequency may vary.The RFIC 710 may be configured with 90 degree phase shifters 750,752 togenerate signals that are in-phase and in-quadrature to maximize totalcapacity. The phase shifter 750,752 receive the local oscillator signalas input and generate two local oscillator signal outputs that are 90degrees out of phase.

The front end device 712 may be configured to aggregate and drive thesignals h11 the coaxial medium in the uplink direction and receivesignals h11, h22 from the coaxial medium in the downlink direction. Withthe front end 712 connecting to the wired communication medium 34, thepreset invention contemplates delivering/receiving signals from the UE700 at relatively lower power levels than the signals would otherwiseneed to be delivered if being transmitted wirelessly. In particular, thecontemplated cable implementation may employ amplifiers 188 (see FIG. 1)within the fiber and/or trunks to maintain the signaling power withincertain levels, i.e., to amplify signaling output (h11, h22) from the RFdistribution and combining network at relatively lower power levelsand/or to ensure the signal power as emitted from the RF combiningnetwork remains approximately constant. The power level, for example, ofa 20 MHz signal (h11, h22) output from the RF distribution and combiningnetwork to the optical transmitter may be approximately −25 dBm whereassimilar wireless signaling outputted to an antenna, such as from a macrocell, may need to as high as, e.g., approximately 40 dBm. Thiscontemplated capability of the present invention to leverage existingamplifiers and capabilities of existing HFC plants 34 may be employed tominimize the output signaling power requirements, and thereby improvedesign implications (i.e. lower gain) and provide lower implementationcosts.

The UE 700 may be configured to process uplink signals from a device(not shown), which is shown for exemplary purposes as a signal h11,which may be different than the h11 signal transmitted on the downlink.The UE 700 is shown to support 2×2 MIMO on the downlink and 1×1, or SISO(or 1×1 MIMO), on the uplink for exemplary, non-limiting purposes assimilar MIMO capabilities may be provided on the uplink.Digital-to-analog converters (DAC) 760, 762 may be used to generate theupstream RF signals and subsequently upconvert them such that the frontend device 712 may be configured to aggregate and drive the signal h11to the coaxial medium in the uplink direction. As opposed to theseparate oscillators and synthesizers in the downlink, the uplink may beconfigured to operate in a SISO (or 1×1 MIMO) configuration may includea single oscillator and synthesizer 764, 766 to facilitate commonlyconverting in-band portion h11(in) and quadrature portion h11(quad)generated with the interface 718 to the frequency desired for transportof the uplink signal h11 over the wired communication medium 34. In caseof an uplink configuration of 2×2 MIMO or greater MIMO order in medium34 which requires frequency diversity, multiple local oscillators may beused. The uplink signal (h11) may be processed with amplifiers 780, 782and filters 784, 786. The amplifiers/filters 780, 782, 784, 786 may becontrollable and/or tunable in order to facilitate proper signalrecovery and to adjust amplification according to characteristics of atraversed portion of the wired communication medium 34. As multipletunings may occur over time for the downstream signaling, the upstreamtunings may be similarly dynamic. State information may be kept to trackand control the specific tuning parameters and/or data or otherinformation may be include in the received signaling to facilitate thedesired tuning of the third and further amplifiers/filters.

A diplexer 790 may be included to facilitate splitting uplink anddownlink signaling within the UE 702 facilitate interfacing thenetwork-side signal 702 with the wired communication medium 34. An RFsplitter 792 may be configured to separate the downlink signal into two.Downlink amplifiers 794, 796, 798, 800 and/or filters 802, 804, 806,808, may be controllable to facilitate processing the correspondingsignaling at different power levels, e.g., the amplification of a firstamplifier 794 may be different from a second amplifier 798 and thefilters 802, 804, 806, 808 may be used to control passage of h11, h22 orother frequency selected frequency ranges. The amplification of thefirst and second amplifiers 794, 798, for example, may be set accordingto a signaling frequency and path being traversed as the signal travelsfrom the signal processor 30 and/or remote antenna unit 40, 42. In themedium 34, the channel frequency used to carry signals h11 to the UE 700may be more attenuated than the channel frequency carrying the signalsh22, which may be compensated for with corresponding control of theamplifiers 802, 804. The ability to control the amplification on a perpath basis may be beneficial in setting a slope of the correspondingsignaling to account for losses, attenuation and/or other signalingcharacteristics of the corresponding path within the wired communicationmedium 34 so as to insure the signals are approximately flat whenfurther processed by the UE 700. The amplifiers 794, 796, 798, 800and/or filters 802, 804, 806, 808 may be controllable in order tofacilitate downstream synchronization, elimination of sidelobes,unwanted adjacent channel energy and/or to compensate for signaldistortions and/or other characteristics of the particular data paths tobe traversed by the corresponding signaling.

The UE 700 is shown to include a plurality of components arranged intothe baseband processor 708, the RFIC 710 and the front end 712. Thecomponents of the baseband processor 708 utilized for uplink signalingmay be similar to those described above in FIGS. 2, 4 and 5 and thoseutilized for downlink signaling may be equivalent inverses to thosedescribed above in FIGS. 2, 4 and 5. These components, however, areshown for illustrative purposes as the baseband processor may includeother components and arrangements of the components in order tofacilitate operations contemplated herein. The RFIC 710 includescomponents configured to facilitate converting received and transmittedsignals to desired frequencies, such as with an upconversion ordownconversion. The operation of the RFIC 710 may cooperate with theupstream signal processor 30 to facilitate adjusting frequencyorthogonality and performing other frequency adjustments necessary toconvert the frequency divers, downlink signals 702 transmitted therefromand to facilitate modulating baseband or other input signals receivedfrom the baseband processor 708 uplink transmission. The RFIC 710 may beconsidered as a frequency converting device having one or more downlinkfrequency conversion units 810 and one or more uplink frequencyconversion units 812.

The uplink and downlink frequency conversion units 810, 812 may begenerally similar insofar as each includes an oscillator, synthesizerand phase shifter operable with ADCs or DACs, filters and/or RF mixerswhereby each are independently controllable. The individualcontrollability of the components may be beneficial in enablingconverting non-frequency diverse signaling to frequency diverse signaltransmissions and processing of frequency diverse signaling tonon-frequency diverse signaling, such as to facilitate processingin-band and quadrature band portions of transported signaling in orderto facilitate the frequency operations contemplated herein. The uplinkand downlink frequency conversion units 810, 812, may be considered forexemplary purposes as modular type components at least in so far asadditional units can be added essentially as modules to one or both ofthe uplink and downlink paths in order to facilitate additional signalprocessing, such as to enable 4×4 MIMO, etc. The number of uplink anddownlink frequency conversion units 810, 812 included within the RFIC710 may be based on the number of inputs and outputs of the front end712, i.e. one downlink frequency conversion unit 810 may be required foreach output of the front end to the RFIC 710 and one uplink frequencyconversion unit 812 may be required for each input from the RFIC 710 tothe front end 712.

The front end 712 may be configured to facilitate interfacing thenetwork-side signaling 702 (uplink and downlink signaling) with thewired network 34 or other connected to network (interfacing to wirelessnetworks is described below). The front end 712 may be configured withcapabilities sufficient to enable separation, filtering, amplificationand other adjustments to each signal part transmitted from the signalprocessor 30 (downlink signaling) and similar capabilities to facilitatedriving signaling to the wired communication medium 34 (uplinksignaling). The amplifiers, filters and/or other components may beindividually controllable to facilitate desired processing of the uplinkand downlink signaling, similarly to the baseband processor 708 and theRFIC 710, such as based on MAP transmission information or other datacarried over the wired network and/or other instructions providedthereto in the described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/954,079,entitled Method and System Operable to Facilitate Signal Transport Overa Network, the disclosure of which is hereby Incorporated by referencein its entirety. The UE 700 may be configured to sniff location andother pertinent information to calculate antenna illumination parametersor other included instruction sufficient to facilitate signalprocessing. The ability to individually process uplink and downlinksignaling paths at the front end 712 may be beneficial in enablingsignaling a standard or common front end 712 to be deployed throughoutthe system 10 and thereafter be individually adjusted to compensate fornoise, attenuation and other signaling path characteristics of acorresponding portion of the system 10, e.g., the front end 712 at endstation 22 may be controlled differently than the front end 712 atanother location due to signal characteristics of the correspondingportions of the wired communication medium 34 at each location.

FIG. 16 illustrates a 4×4 MIMO, wireline UE 850 in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The UE 850 may beconsidered as a 4×4, MIMO signal processor at least in that singularsignals input to and output from the baseband processor may be processedinto a first signal (h11), a second signal (h22), a third signal (h33)and a fourth signal (h44) during uplink and downlink transport over thewire communication medium 34 (e.g., signal processor 48 in FIG. 2 b).The signal processor 850 may be configured similarly to the signalingprocessor 150 shown in FIG. 15, particularly with respect to the use ofamplifiers, filters, combiners, digital and analog converters andoscillators/synthesizers (reference numerals have been omitted howeverthe operation of the components may be controlled in the mannerdescribed above and the associated operation may be understood accordingto the corresponding circuit designation known to those skilled in theart). The signal processor 850 may be similarly configured with abaseband processor 852, an RFIC 854 and a front end 856. The basebandprocessor may be similar to the baseband processor 708 and the RFIC 854may be similar to the RFIC 710 with the exception of includingadditional uplink and downlink conversion units 810, 812 to facilitatefrequency processing of additional uplink and downlink channels. Thecorresponding uplink and downlink conversion units are references as F1,F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7 and F8 where each includes independentlycontrollable oscillators and related components operation in the mannerdescribed above.

The front end 856 may be similarly configured to the front end 712 withadditional filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate processing of theadditional uplink and downlink signaling. The front end 856 is shown toinclude such components to facilitate four downlink outputs to the RFICand four uplink inputs from the RFIC 854, one for each of the uplink anddownlink signals h11, h22, h33 and h44. An RF splitter 852 may beincluded in the downlink to facilitate separating incoming (downstream)signaling into the equivalent parts h11, h22, h33, h44. (Note thatunlike FIG. 15 that shows a SISO configuration in uplink, this exampleshows a 4×4 MIMO in the uplink.) The RFIC 856 is shown to be configuredto facilitate interfacing the network-side signaling 702 and thedevice-side signaling 706 described above. The UE 850 may optionally beused in place of the UE 700 within the network to facilitate the 2×2MIMO downlink and SISO uplink signaling associate with the UE 700, i.e.,the UE 850 may be a replacement for the UE 700. Of course, correspondingcontrols may be implemented to facilitate turning “off” unused portionsof the UE 850 if used in that manner and/or the unused portions may bere-used to support additional signal processing, such as to double orotherwise facilitate simultaneously processing signaling as if it wereoperating as the UE 700.

FIG. 17 illustrates a universal front end 880 in accordance with onenon-limiting aspect of the present invention. The front end 880 may beconsidered as universal due to an ability to process wireline and/orwireless network-side signaling 882 for interfacing with RFIC-sidesignaling 884. The illustrated configuration of the front end 880 isshown as configured to facilitate interfacing RFIC-side signaling 884with the RFIC 710 illustrated in FIG. 15, i.e., two downlink outputs tothe RFIC 710 and one uplink input from the RFIC 710. The front end 880is shown to include a first antenna port 886 and a second antenna port888 configured to facilitate exchanging network-side wireless signaling882 and a coax or other wired interface 890 configured to exchangenetwork-side wireline signaling 882. In this configuration, the frontend 880 may be use in cooperation with the above-described basebandprocessors and RFICs to facilitate interfacing wireless signaling withone of the wireless end stations and wireline signaling with one of thewired end stations. The front end 880 shown to include a plurality ofamplifiers and filters to facilitate adjusting gain and frequencyfiltering for a plurality of frequency bands A, B, C, D. The frequencybands A, B, C, D may correspond with license wireless spectrum (see FIG.3) over which wireless signaling maybe exchanged with the front end 880.

The multiple frequency bands A, B, C, D are shown for example anon-limiting purposes to demonstrate one aspect of the front end 880having capabilities sufficient to facilitate exchanging wirelesssignaling at various frequency bands. The frequency bands A, B, C, D mayoccupy frequencies other than those associated with the wiredcommunication medium 34 but the frequency bands need not be different.First and second band switches 892, 894 may be included to facilitatedirecting signaling at particular frequencies to various signal passwithin the front end 880 and/or to allow for the integration ofwireless/wireline switching. As shown, a first plurality of downlinkpaths 898 may be used to facilitate processing and communicatingdownlink wireless signaling to the RFIC from the first and secondantenna ports 886, 888, a second plurality of downlink paths 900 may beused to facilitate processing and communicating downlink wirelinesignaling to the RFIC, and uplink paths 904 may be used to facilitateprocessing and communicating uplink wireline signaling to the interface890 and a plurality of uplink signaling paths 906 may be used tofacilitate processing computer dictating uplink wireless signaling tothe second antenna port 898. A splitter 908 may be included tofacilitate separating the downlink wireline signaling, e.g., separatingeach part of the wireline signaling into separate signals four output tothe RFIC (h11, h22). The amplifiers and filters and the band switches892, 894 may be independently and separately controllable to facilitatedirecting signals to certain portions of the front end 888 according tofrequency and/or a direction of travel and the corresponding amplifiersand filters may be similarly controlled to facilitate processingsignaling according to the medium being traversed, such as in the mannerdescribed above.

The wireline signals being exchanged through the interface 890 maycorrespond with those associated with facilitating wireline signalingaccording to the manner described in FIG. 2. The wireless signals beingexchanged through the first and second antenna ports 886, 888 maycorrespond with those associated with facilitating wireless signalingaccording to the manner described in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. The illustratedwireless signaling corresponds with 2×2 MIMO signaling where two antennaports transmit downlink wireless signals to the front end 880 fromseparate antenna ports, e.g., two ports included on one of the endstations (remote antenna units) 40, 42 or separate ports included oneach of the end stations 40, 42. As described above, the wirelesssignaling may be transmitted such that single signal part (e.g. h11) istransmitted from a signal antenna port and effective received at both ofthe first and second antenna ports 886, 888 (e.g., g11 is received atthe first port 886 and g12 is received at the second port). In a 2×2downlink MIMO, h11=g11+g21 and in a 4×4 downlink MIMO,h11=g11+g21+g31+g41. Similarly, in a 2×2 downlink MIMO, h22=g12+g22 andin a 4×4 downlink MIMO, h22=g12+g22+g32+g42. The front end 880 may beconfigured to facilitate processing the downlink wireless signals (g11,etc.) for processing to the RFIC, including similar processing forfacilitating wireless signaling having beamforming, e.g., processing ofg′11, g′22, etc. The front end 880 may also facilitate uplink wirelesssignaling, which is shown as SISO due to only the second antenna port888 being used for uplink wireless signaling.

FIG. 18 illustrates a universal, 4×4 MIMO front end 920 in accordancewith one non-limiting aspect of the present invention. The front end 920may operate similarly to the front end 880 at least in so far assupporting multiple frequency bands (A, B) for wireless signaling andany frequency band for wireline signaling using the above described bandswitches, amplifiers, filters, etc. The front end 920 may be configuredto facilitate interfacing signaling with the RFIC 854 show in FIG. 16due to the four uplink and downlink input and output ports associatedtherewith. The front end 920 is shown to be configured to facilitatedual-band wireless signal in order to facilitate use with more limitedUEs, i.e., those only required or enable to support two bands. Unlikethe front end 880, the front end 920 may support 4×4, wireless uplinksignaling over four antenna ports (the effective wireless signaling(g11, etc.) are illustrated for the corresponding uplink and downlinkwireless signaling with respective arrows). The front end 920 is shownto include a plurality of individually controllable switches 922, 924,926, 928, 930, 932, 934, 936 to facilitate selectively directingwireless and wireline signaling between the appropriate on of theantenna ports (labeled ports 1, 2, 3, 4) and the coaxial or wired port(labeled).

FIG. 19 illustrates a universal, 4×4 MIMO front end 960 in accordancewith one non-limiting aspect of the present invention. The front end 960is similar to the front end 920 and shown to include additionalcomponents to facilitate four-band (A, B, C, D) wireless signaling. Thefront end 960 may be universal and so far is including capabilitiessufficient to facilitate wireline and/or wireless receipt of signalparts (h11, h22, h33, h44) transmitted directly thereto from the signalprocessor 30 and/or wirelessly thereto from one of the remote antennaunits (the signal parts h11, h22, h33, h44 may be effective receivedthat each of the antenna ports (signals g11, g12, etc.). As with thefront end 920, the front end 960 may be operable as a wireless-onlydevice, such as is so wireline are removed and/or the correspondingswitches are driven to facilitate the connections only associated withwireless signaling paths. Optionally, the front end 920 and the frontend 960 may have the wireline signaling paths and related componentsremoved in order to be configured as a dedicated wireless front end.

FIG. 20 illustrates a flowchart of a method for controlling a UE tofacilitate signaling in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of thepresent invention. The method may be embodied in a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium, computer program product or other constructhaving computer-readable instructions, code, software, logic and thelike. The instructions may be operable with a processor or otherlogically executing device of the UE and/or another one or more of thedevices/components described herein to facilitate controlling thesignaling processing and/or the other devices/components in the mannercontemplated by the present invention to facilitate delivering wirelesssignaling. The method is predominately described for exemplarynon-limiting purpose with respect to at least a portion of the wirelesssignaling, or corresponding intermediary signaling, being long-hauledcarried over a wired and/or wireline communication medium, such as butnot necessarily limited to cable or hybrid-fiber coax (hfc) network. Thelong-haul or intermediary signaling may be facilitated with processingor other controls performed with the UE sufficient to provide wiredtransport over a greater distance than the eventual wireless signalingtransport, thereby leverage off of the economies associated with wiredtransport while also facilitating final interaction with wirelessdevices.

Block 1002 relates to determining whether the UE, noted as a cable UE(cUE), is connected to the wired communication medium 34 or the wirelesscommunication medium 110. The connection may be determined based onwhether the UE is within a cradle, a docking-station or anotherremovable receptacle (not shown) having an interface to the wiredcommunication medium 34 as one non-limiting aspect of the presentinvention contemplates the UE having capabilities to automaticallyswitch between a wireline and wireless personality based on location,connection or use. Block 1004 relates to determining the wirelinepersonality, i.e., the UE being optimized or having capabilitiessufficient to facilitate wireline signaling. In the event the UE is amobile phone or other predominantly wireless device, use of the wirelinepersonality may be beneficial in enabling wireline communications withthe UE over the system without having to convert back to wirelesssignaling, e.g., the wireless signals associated with a phone call maybe received and transported over the system 10 the recipient UE withouthaving to be converted back to the wireless signals or spectrum licensedto the recipient UE. Of course, the present invention is not limited tothis use case and fully contemplates desiring the wireline personalityfor various reasons, such as to enable disablement of the wirelesssignaling related components to save UE energy life, reduce costs ofwireless charges from wireless operator and/or to free the wirelesssignaling related components for use in processing other wirelesssignaling that the UE would otherwise not be able to process or toprocess simultaneously.

Block 1006 relates to the UE scanning and analyzing the downlink (DL)signaling, MAP information and other signaling being carried over thewired communication medium 34 to facilities automatically controlling,programming or otherwise implementing state for the various controllableUE components described above. The scanning and analysis may includedetermining whether continuous OFDM versus standard carrier separationis being used to facilitate wireline signaling with the UE (optionallyincluding uplink and downlink). Block 1010 to analyzing control sectionand pilots to determine MIMO order, channel aggregation type and toidentify each MIMO layer, such as to determine whether 2×2, 4×4 or otherMIMO orders are to be employed. Block 1012 relates to identifying eachcable eNodeB (e.g., signal processor 30) transmission region in theevent the UE is reachable by multiple eNodeBs and/or if a singleprocessor 30 effectively constructs multiple eNodeBs to service thesystem 10. Block 1014 relates to determining whether cUE registered infirst (next) eNodeB or another, such as to determine whether theparameters and other information collected in the preceding blocks areintended for its use or whether such information should be continued tobe processed until more relevant information is determined. Block 1016relates to using DL information to adjust local oscillator (LO)frequency parameters and/or other parameters (amplifier settings, bandswitching, etc.) in the RFIC. The frequency parameters may beindividually adjusted for each uplink and/or downlink frequencyconversion unit operable within the UE and/or the one or more unitstasked with facilitating the specified wireline signaling.

Block 1018 relates to determining UL parameters (LO frequency, amplifiersettings, band switching, etc.) from DL information and facilitatingcorresponding adjustments, such as by adjusting UL LO parameters in theRFIC. Block 1020 relates to connecting and registering with a eNodeB(e.g, signal processor 30). The UE may notify the registered eNodeB of acapability to facilitate receiving wireline signaling and/or acapability to facilitate transmitting wireline signaling thereto, e.g.,to indicate acceptance of parameters necessary to facilitate uplink anddownlink directed signaling associated with facilitate the phone call.Block 1002 may be returned to following the registration in order tore-assess whether additional wireless and/or wireline signaling isdesired and/or whether the UE has been removed from the cradle orotherwise switch to a wireless personality, such as in the event a userswitches a setting. Block 1022 relates to determining a wirelesspersonality, i.e., the UE being optimized or having capabilitiessufficient to facilitate wireless signaling. In the event the UE is amobile phone or other predominately wireless device, use of the wirelesspersonality may be beneficial in enabling wireless communications withthe UE following transmission of at least a portion of the signals aswireline signals.

Block 1024 relates to scanning through DL spectrum and registering forwireless signaling, such as by performing a handshake or other operationwith a wireless end station to gain access to the corresponding wirelesscommunication medium and to announce presence and availability forwireless signaling. Block 1026 relates to determining whether the eNodeBtasked with supporting signaling thereto intends to rely upon an endstation having beamforming capabilities to facilitate the wirelesssignaling with the UE. Block 1028 relates to determining beamforming tobe enabled and gathering RF remote antenna location(s) and providing theeNodeB with a location of the UE. The location information may be usedto determine one or more remote antenna suitable to facilitate wirelesssignaling with the UD, such as to spatially distant remote antenna unitssuitable to providing enhanced MIMO. Block 1030 relates to calculatingantenna illumination parameters and configuring the UE RFIC with delay,gain and UL/DL communication parameters, i.e., setting the variouscontrollable states of the RFIC components to facilitate beamformingsignaling. Block 1032 relates to switching to 1024 QAM if environment inRF remote in unique capabilities allow. Block 1034 relates to operatingUE to facilitate the contemplated wireless signaling.

As supported non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to acable UE configured to implement data transport with the flexibility toplace each data path generated for MIMO into independent frequencychannels to maintain orthogonality among data paths while in the coaxialcable medium. The UE may include a baseband processor unit remaining thesame as its wireless counterpart or it may have support for highermodulation orders and shorter cyclic prefix lengths, leveraging the morebenign environment of the HFC network. In the RFIC, frequencyindependence for the different data paths may be achieved by adding aseparate independent local oscillator and frequency synthesizer. Tosupport higher order modulations intended in the wireline environment,ADC and DAC components with higher number of bits per sample may beused. In the cable implementation (Cable UE), no antennas may be needed,only modest amplification in addition to uplink combining and downlinksignal distribution is needed. A diplexer may be used to separatedownlink from uplink data paths. Flexibility of independent frequencyselection of data paths can also be leveraged to incorporate carrieraggregation.

One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to aWireline/Wireless Universal UE (FIGS. 9-11). This UE/cable UE dualfunction implementation enables the use of the same end device forwireless and wireline purposes. An example use case leveraging thisimplementation is an LTE wireless handset that becomes a wireline modem(cUE) when it is placed in a cradle connected to the wireline network.This implementation uses the same “Universal” RFIC depicted in FIG. 15and uses a modified front end that still has significant similarity tothe front end depicted for the traditional wireless implementation shownin FIG. 15. The front end in FIG. 17 has some additional switching pathsin addition to the downstream and upstream wireline data paths thatconnect to the RFIC. The power amplifier depicted in the wireline pathrequires less gain than the wireless amplifiers because the HFC networkis already an amplified network. Since LTE has optimized handoffmechanisms for switching from one band to another. This “Universal UE”leverages these handoff mechanisms for switching between wireless andwireline.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communicationsystem including a signal processor configured to: receive an inputsignal desired for transmission, the input signal being non-diverse;multiplex the input signal into at least a first signal part, a secondsignal part, a third signal part and a fourth signal part; and transmitthe first signal part at a first frequency, the second signal part at asecond frequency, the third signal part at a third frequency and thefourth signal part at a fourth frequency, each of the first, second,third and fourth frequencies being diverse.

The communication system may include the signal processor configured tocombine the first, second, third and fourth signal parts fortransmission over at least one of a wireline communication medium and anoptical communication medium

The communication system may include an end station configured to:receive the first, second, third and fourth signal parts after beingtransmitted over the at least one of the wireline communication mediumand the optical communication medium; and correlate the first, second,third and fourth signal parts for spatially diverse radio frequency (RF)transmission.

The communication system may include the spatially diverse RFtransmission characterized by the first, second, third and fourth signalparts being correlated such that each signal part is transmitted at acommon frequency.

The communication system may include the end station having a converterconfigured to convert the first frequency of the first signal part tothe common frequency, to convert the second frequency of the secondsignal part to the common frequency, to convert the third frequency ofthe third signal part to the common frequency and to convert the fourthfrequency of the four signal part to the common frequency.

The communication system may include the end station having a firstantenna, a second antenna, a third antenna and a fourth antenna torespectively transmit the first signal part, the second signal part, thethird signal part and the fourth signal part, the first, second, thirdand fourth antennas being spatially diverse.

The communication system may include the end station configured toselect the common frequency from a plurality of available frequencies,the plurality of available frequencies being selected according to anoriginator such that the common frequency is selected from at least oneof the available frequencies associated with the originator of the inputsignal.

The communication system may include the signal processor configured todelay at least one of the first signal part, the second signal part, thethird signal part in the fourth signal part prior to transmission overthe at least one of the wireline communication medium and the opticalcommunication medium.

The communication system may include an end station configured to:receive the first, second, third and fourth signal parts after beingtransmitted over the at least one of the wireline communication medium;and process the first, second, third and fourth signal parts into anoutput signal representative of the input signal, the output signalbeing non-diverse.

The communication system may include the signal processor configured toreceive the input signal from a cellular communication system, the inputsignal being derived from a cellular signal transmitted over thecellular communication system.

The communication system may include the signal processor configured toreceive the input signal from an Internet Service Provider (ISP), theinput signal being derived from data transmitted through the ISP.

The communication system may include the signal processor configured toreceive the input signal from a cable television service providersystem, the input signal being derived from television transmissionscarried over the cable television service provider system.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates method of facilitating signal transmissions including:receiving an input signal desired for transmission; multiplexing theinput signal into at least a plurality of signal parts; modulationmapping each of the plurality of signal parts after the multiplexing;orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) processing each of theplurality of signal parts after the modulation mapping; transmittingeach of the plurality of signal parts for long-haul transmission over atleast one of a wireline communication medium and an opticalcommunication medium after the OFDM processing, including transmittingeach of the plurality of signal parts at a different center frequency.

The method may include receiving the input signal in a non-diversestate.

The method may include receiving the input signal in a digital state andwherein the modulation mapping includes mapping the digital state of theinput signal to a constellation symbol.

The method may include the OFDM processing relating each of theplurality of signal parts to actual spectrum.

The method may include spatially multiplexing each of the plurality ofsignal parts after the modulation mapping and before the OFDMprocessing, the spatially multiplexing including delaying at least oneof the plurality of signal parts relative to another one of theplurality of signal parts.

The method may include receiving each of the plurality of signal partsafter being transmitted over the at least one of the wirelinecommunication medium; and correlating each of the plurality of signalparts for spatially diverse radio frequency (RF) transmission at acommon frequency.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates method of facilitating a cellular phone call between anoriginating device and a destination device including: receiving aninput signal representative of at least part of the cellular phone call;multiplexing the input signal into at least a plurality of signal parts;transmitting each of the plurality of signal parts for long-haultransmission over at least one of a wireline communication medium and afiber optic communication medium, including transmitting each of theplurality of signal parts at a different center frequency; receivingeach of the plurality of signal parts after being transmitted over theat least one of the wireline communication medium and the fiber opticcommunication medium; and correlating each of the plurality of signalparts for spatially diverse radio frequency (RF) transmission to thedestination device, including transmitting each of the plurality ofsignal parts at a common frequency.

The method may include identifying a service provider associated withthe destination device; and selecting the common frequency based on theidentity of the service provider.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signal processorhaving: a baseband processor configured to multiplex an input signalinto at least a first signal part, a second signal part, a third signalpart and a fourth signal part; and a radio frequency integrated circuit(RFIC) configured to transmit the first signal part at a firstfrequency, the second signal part at a second frequency, the thirdsignal part at a third frequency and the fourth signal part at a fourthfrequency, each of the first, second, third and fourth frequencies beingdifferent.

The signal processor may include a front end configured to combine thefirst, second, third and fourth signal parts into an output signal fortransmission over at least one of a wireline communication medium and anoptical communication medium.

The signal processor may include the front end having a combiner forcombining the first, second, third and fourth signal parts into theoutput signal.

The signal processor may include the front end having a first filter forfiltering the output signal.

The signal processor may include the front end having a first amplifierfor amplifying the output signal.

The signal may include the front end having the first filter and thefirst amplifier controllable as a function of instructions received froma master controller, the master controller setting a passband for thefirst filter and an amount of gain and tilt for the first amplifier.

The signal processor may include the RFIC having a digital interface forseparating each of the first, second, third and fourth signal partsaccording to digital in-phase and quadrature phase components such thatdigital interface outputs first digital in-phase and quadrature phasecomponents for the first signal part, second digital in-phase andquadrature phase components for the second signal part, third digitalin-phase and quadrature phase components for the third signal part andfourth digital in-phase and quadrature phase components for the fourthsignal part

The signal processor may include the RFIC having a separatedigital-to-analog converter (DAC) for converting each of the first,second, third and fourth digital in-phase and quadrature phasecomponents into corresponding first, second, third and fourth analogin-phase and quadrature phase components.

The signal processor may include the RFIC having a first oscillator, asecond oscillator, a third oscillator and a fourth oscillator, the firstoscillator facilitating the first signal part being transmitted at thefirst frequency, the second oscillator facilitating the second signalpart being transmitted at the second frequency, the third oscillatorfacilitating the third signal part being transmitted at the thirdfrequency and the fourth oscillator facilitating the fourth signal partbeing transmitted at the fourth frequency.

The signal processor may include the RFIC having a separate mixer foreach of the analog first, second, third and fourth in-phase andquadrature phase components, each mixer operating with no more than oneof the first, second, third and fourth oscillators to facilitatetransmitting the corresponding one of the first, second, third andfourth in-phase and quadrature phase components at the correspondingfirst, second, third and fourth frequencies, each in-phase andquadrature phase component thereafter being joined to form the first,second, third and fourth signal parts being transmitted at the first,second, third and fourth frequencies.

The signal processor may include the first, second, third and fourthoscillators controllable to the corresponding first, second, third andfourth frequency as a function of instructions received from a mastercontroller.

The signal processor may include the signal processor configured toreceive the input signal from a cellular communication system, the inputsignal being derived from a cellular signal transmitted over thecellular communication system.

The signal processor may include the signal processor configured toreceive the input signal from an Internet Service Provider (ISP), anapplication service provider or an over the top service provider, theinput signal being derived from data transmitted through one of theservice providers.

The signal processor may include the signal processor configured toreceive the input signal from a cable television service providersystem, the input signal being derived from television transmissionscarried over the cable television service provider system.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates method of facilitating signal transmissions including:receiving an input signal desired for transmission; multiplexing theinput signal into at least a plurality of signal parts; modulationmapping each of the plurality of signal parts after the multiplexing;orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) processing each of theplurality of signal parts after the modulation mapping; instructing eachof a plurality of local oscillators to facilitate mixing no more thanone of the plurality of signal parts after the OFDM processing,including mixing each signal part to have a different center frequency;and transmitting each of the plurality of signal parts for long-haultransmission over at least one of a wireline communication medium and anoptical communication medium after the mixing.

The method may include amplifying and combining the plurality of signalparts after the mixing and prior to long-haul transmission.

The method may include dynamically amplifying the plurality of signalparts as a function of instructions received from a master controller,the dynamic amplification characterized by adjusting gain and/or tilt(frequency dependent gain) for one of more of the plurality of signalsparts as a function of losses associated with a path intended to betraveled with the corresponding one of the plurality of signals,including adjusting the gain and/or tilt for at least one of theplurality of signal parts after initially setting the corresponding gainand/or tilt when the corresponding signal path changes.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signal processorhaving: a baseband processor configured to multiplex an input signalinto at least a first signal part and a second signal part; a radiofrequency integrated circuit (RFIC) configured to transmit the firstsignal part at a first frequency and the second signal part at a secondfrequency, RFIC including a first oscillator for mixing the first signalpart and a second oscillator for mixing the second signal part; and afront end configured to combine the first signal part and the secondsignal part into an output signal for output put to a radio frequency(RF) combiner.

The signal processor may include the first and second oscillators mixingthe first and second signal parts to have different center frequencies.

The signal processor may include the different center frequencies of thefirst and second oscillators selectable in response to instructionsreceived from a master controller such that different center frequenciesare dynamically and individually selectable.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) remote antenna unithaving: a splitter configured to separate an input signal into at leasta first signal part, a second signal part, a third signal part and afourth signal part, the first signal part being at a first frequency,the second signal part being at a second frequency, the third signalpart being at a third frequency and the fourth signal part being at afourth frequency, each of the first, second, third and fourthfrequencies being different; a first converter, a second converter, athird converter and a fourth converter, each of the first, second, thirdand fourth converters being configured to convert a respective one ofthe first, second, third and fourth signal parts to a fifth frequencyfor subsequent wireless transport; and an engine configured to determinethe fifth frequency as a function of frequency information transmittedover a wired communication medium carrying the input signal, the engineinstructing each of the first, second, third and fourth converters torespectively convert the first, second, third and fourth signal parts tothe fifth frequency.

The remote antenna unit may include the first, second, third and fourthconverters having one of a first oscillator, a second oscillator, athird oscillator and a fourth oscillator, each oscillator beingindependently controllable by the engine to operate at multiplefrequencies.

The remote antenna unit may include the engine controlling each of thefirst, second, third and fourth oscillators to respectively operate at asixth, seventh, eight and ninth frequency in order to facilitateconverting the first, second, third and fourth signal parts to the fifthfrequency.

The remote antenna unit may include a gain mechanism operable to amplifythe first, second, third and fourth signal parts following conversion tothe fifth frequency.

The remote antenna unit may include the gain mechanism having a firstamplifier, a second amplifier, a third amplifier and a fourth amplifierfor respectively amplifying the first, second, third and fourth signalparts, each amplifier being independently controllable to providemultiple amounts of amplification.

The remote antenna unit may include the engine controlling the amount ofamplification provided by the first, second, third and fourth amplifierssuch that the amplification provided by the first, second, third andfourth amplifiers periodically varies depending on instructions receivedfrom the engine.

The remote antenna may include a beamforming mechanism operable tofacilitate steering a first beam, second beam, third beam and fourthbeam transmitted from a respective one of a first antenna port, a secondantenna port, a third antenna port and a fourth antenna port, eachantenna port facilitating wireless transmission of a respective one ofthe first, second, third and fourth signal parts following conversion tothe fifth frequency.

The remote antenna unit may include a first duplexer, a second duplexer,a third duplexer and a fourth duplexer respectively associated with oneof the first, second, third and fourth antenna ports, each duplexerbeing configured to separate uplink and downlink traffic, the first,second, third and fourth signal parts being downlink traffic.

The remote antenna may include a fifth converter, a sixth converter, aseventh converter and an eighth converter, each of the fifth, sixth,seventh and eighth converters being configured to convert a respectiveone of a fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth signal part to one of a tenth,eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth frequency, the fifth, sixth, seventhand eighth signal parts being uplink traffic transported through arespective one of the first, second, third and fourth duplexers.

The remote antenna unit may include the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighthconverters include one of a fifth oscillator, a sixth oscillator, aseventh oscillator and a eighth oscillator, each oscillator beingindependently controllable by the engine to operate at multiplefrequencies.

The remote antenna unit may include the engine controlling each of thefifth, sixth, seventh and eighth oscillators to respectively operate atthe tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth frequencies in order tofacilitate converting the first, second, third and fourth signal partsto a fourteenth frequency.

The remote antenna unit may include a fifth amplifier, a sixthamplifier, a seventh amplifier and a eighth amplifier for respectivelyamplifying the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth signal parts followingconversion to the fourteenth frequency, each amplifier beingindependently controllable by the engine to provide multiple amounts ofamplification.

The remote antenna unit may include a combiner configured for combiningthe fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth signal parts following conversionto the fourteenth frequency.

The remote antenna unit may include the engine sniffing a transmissionMAP transmitted over the wired communication medium carrying the inputsignal, the transmission MAP including the frequency information.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates non-transitory computer-readable medium having a pluralityof instructions operable with a processor to facilitate controlling aremote antenna unit to facilitate multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)wireless signaling, the non-transitory computer-readable mediumcomprising instructions sufficient for: determining a transmission MAPbeing transmitted over a wired communication medium to facilitatetransporting an input signal, the input signaling being carried over thewired communication as at least a first signal part, a second signalpart, a third signal part and a fourth signal part, the first signalpart being at a first frequency, the second signal part being at asecond frequency, the third signal part being at a third frequency andthe fourth signal part being at a fourth frequency, each of the first,second, third and fourth frequencies being different; and controlling afirst converter, a second converter, a third converter and a fourthconverter included as part of the remote antenna unit to convert arespective one of the first, second, third and fourth signal parts to afifth frequency for subsequent MIMO wireless transport over a wirelesscommunication medium according to parameters specified within thetransmission MAP.

The non-transitory computer-readable medium may include instructionssufficient for independently controlling each of a first, a second, athird and a fourth oscillator to respectively operate at a sixth,seventh, eight and ninth frequency in order to facilitate converting thefirst, second, third and fourth signal parts to the fifth frequencyaccording to the parameters specified in the transmission MAP.

The non-transitory computer-readable medium may include instructionssufficient for independently controlling amplification provided by eachof a first, a second, a third and a fourth amplifier to respectivelyadjust gain of a corresponding one of the first, second, third andfourth signal parts following conversion to the fifth frequencyaccording to parameters specified within the transmission MAP.

The non-transitory computer-readable may include instructions sufficientfor controlling a beamforming mechanism operable to facilitate steeringa first beam, second beam, third beam and fourth beam transmitted from arespective one of a first antenna port, a second antenna port, a thirdantenna port and a fourth antenna port, each antenna port facilitatingwireless transmission of a respective one of the first, second, thirdand fourth signal parts following conversion to the fifth frequency.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system having: asignal processor configured to separate an input signal into at least afirst signal part and a second signal part for transport over a wiredcommunication medium, the first signal part being at a first frequencyand the second signal part being at a second frequency different thanthe first frequency; and a remote antenna unit configure to wirelesstransmit the at least first and second signal parts to a device over awireless communication medium, the remote antenna unit including anengine configured to control a first converter and a second converterconfigured to convert a respective one of the first and second signalparts to a fifth frequency prior to transmission over the wirelesscommunication medium according to parameters specified within atransmission MAP carried over the wired communication medium.

The system may include the first and second converters having one of afirst oscillator and a second oscillator, wherein the engine controlseach of the first, second, third and fourth oscillators to respectivelyoperate at a sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth frequency in order tofacilitate converting the first, second, third and fourth signal partsto the fifth frequency.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) user equipment (UE)having: a front end configured to process at least a first signal part,a second signal part, a third signal part and a fourth signal part; aradio integrated circuit (RFIC) configured to convert the first signalpart at a first frequency, the second signal part at a second frequency,the third signal part at a third frequency and the fourth signal part ata fourth frequency to a common fifth frequency; and a baseband processorconfigured to combine the first, second, third and fourth signal partsinto an output signal.

The UE may include the front end having a wired interface for receivingthe first, second, third and fourth signal parts as frequency diversesignals carried over a wired communication medium.

The UE may include the front end having a plurality of wireless ports,including a first port, a second port, a third port and a fourth portfor receiving the first, second, third and fourth signal parts asspatially diverse signals carried over a wireless communication medium,each of the ports receiving an effective portion of the first, second,third and fourth signal parts as wirelessly transmitted thereto.

The UE may include: the front end having a wired interface for receivingthe first, second, third and fourth signal parts as frequency diversesignals when carried over a wired communication medium; and the frontend having a plurality of wireless ports, including a first port, asecond port, a third port and a fourth port for receiving the first,second, third and fourth signal parts as spatially diverse signals whencarried over a wireless communication medium, each of the portsreceiving an effective portion of the first, second, third and fourthsignal parts as wirelessly transmitted thereto.

The UE may include the front end having one more switches operable toswitch signal paths through the front end from wireline paths towireless paths depending on whether the first, second, third and fourthsignal parts are received at the wired interface or the wireless ports.

The UE may include the switches are automatically operable to switch tothe wireline paths when connection to a cradle is determined and toswitch to the wireless paths when connection to cradle is notdetermined.

The UE may include the front end having an output to the RFIC for eachof the first, second, third and fourth signal parts.

The UE may include the RFIC having a frequency conversion unit for eachof the outputs, each of the frequency conversion units including anindependently controllable local oscillator to facilitate frequencyconversion of the first, second, third and fourth signal parts to thefifth frequency.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) user equipment (UE)operable with a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) network to facilitatewireless and wireline signaling, the UE having: a front end having awireline interface for interfacing wireline signals with the HFC networkand a wireless interface for interfacing wireless signals with the HFCnetwork, the front end including wireless and wireline signal paths forthe interfaced wireless and wireline signals; a radio frequencyintegrated circuit (RFIC) configured to generated frequency convertedsignals for the wireline and wireless signal paths; and a basebandprocessor configured to interface the frequency converted signals with adevice connected thereto.

The UE may include the wireless interface comprising a plurality ofwireless ports.

The UE may include the front end having a frequency band switch for eachof the wireless ports, each frequency band switch being operable betweenat least a first and second frequency band to facilitate interfacingwireless signals within the corresponding frequency band.

The UE may include the front end having at least one uplink port and atleast one downlink port for respectively interfacing uplink and downlinksignals traversing the wireline and wireless signaling paths.

The UE may include the font end having a switch associated with eachuplink port and each downlink port, the switches operable between awireless position and a wireline position, the wireless positionconnecting the corresponding one of the uplink and downlink ports to oneof the wireless paths and the wireline position connecting thecorresponding one of the uplink and downlink ports to one of thewireline paths.

The UE may include the front end is operable to automatically set theswitches to the wireline position when connection to a cradle isdetermine and to automatically set the switches to the wireless positionwhen connection to the cradle is not determined.

The UE may include the RFIC having a frequency conversion unit for eachof the ports, each of the frequency conversion units including anindependently controllable local oscillator to facilitate frequencyconversion.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) user equipment (UE)operable with a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) network to facilitateprocessing downlink spatial diverse wireless signaling generated fromfrequency diverse wireline signal transmitted over a wired communicationmedium of the HFC network, the UE having: a front end having a pluralityof wireless ports for receiving the spatially diverse wireless signals;a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) configured to frequencyconvert signals output from the front end as a function of the receivedwireless signals received to a common frequency; and a basebandprocessor configured to interface the frequency converted signal with adevice connected thereto.

The UE may include the front end having a frequency band switch for eachof the wireless ports, each frequency band switch being operable betweenat least a first and second frequency band to facilitate interfacingwireless signals within the corresponding frequency band.

The UE may include the front end having at least one output forrespectively interfacing signals associated with each of the wirelessports signals with the RFIC.

The UE may include the RFIC having a frequency conversion unit for eachof the outputs, each of the frequency conversion units including anindependently controllable local oscillator to facilitate frequencyconversion.

The UE may include the front end having a diplex filter for each of thewireless ports, the diplex filter enabling the received wireless signalsto be directed toward the RFIC and to direct uplink wireless signalsreceived from the RFIC to be transmitted from the corresponding port.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates method of facilitating wireless signaling comprising:determining a first signal desired for transport to a first device;separating the first signal into at least a first part, a second part, athird part and a fourth part, each of the first, second, third andfourth parts being frequency diverse at least in that each is modulatedat a different frequency; and facilitating transmission of the first,second, third and fourth parts over a wireline communication medium suchthat at least one of the first, second, third and fourth parts arereceived at a first remote antenna unit and at least one of the first,second, third and fourth parts are received at the second remote antennaunit, the first and second remote antenna units being configured towirelessly transmit the received one or more of the first, second, thirdand fourth parts to the first device over a wireless communicationmedium.

The method may include facilitating transmission such that the first,second, third and fourth parts travel a greater distance over thewireline communication medium than when subsequently transmitted overthe wireless communication medium.

The method may include selecting the first and second remote antennaunits from a plurality of remote antenna units available to facilitatewirelessly transmitting the first, second, third and fourth parts to thefirst device.

The method may include determining spatial diversity for each of theplurality of remote antenna units relative to a first location of thefirst device and selecting the first and second remote antenna unitsfrom the plurality of remote antenna units based at least in part onspatial diversity.

The method may include determining spatial diversity by calculating anangular position of each of the plurality of remote antenna unitsrelative to the first location.

The method may include selecting the first and second remote antennaunits based at least in part on having related angular positions greaterthan an angular threshold.

The method may include selecting the first and second remote antennaunits from a plurality of remote antenna units available to facilitatewirelessly transmitting the first, second, third and fourth parts to thefirst device, including determining beamforming capabilities for each ofthe plurality of remote antenna units relative to a first location ofthe first device such that the first and second remote antenna units areselected based at least in part on beamforming capabilities.

The method may include selecting the first and second remote antennaunits from at least two of the plurality of remote antenna units havingbeamforming capabilities sufficient to facilitate directing wirelesssignaling toward the first location.

The method may include providing beamforming instructions to each of thefirst and second remote antenna units, the beamforming instructionscontrolling amplitude and phase or delay of wireless signaling emittedtherefrom in a manner sufficient to facilitate directing wirelesssignaling toward the first location.

The method claim may include providing updated beamforming instructionsto each of the first and second remote antenna units in order to adjustthe amplitude and phase or delay of the wireless signaling based uponmovement of the first device from the first location to a secondlocation such that the wireless signaling becomes directed toward thesecond location more so than the first location.

The method may include instructing the first and second remote antennaunits to transmit the first, second, third and fourth parts at a firstfrequency.

The method may include: determining a second signal desired for wirelessreceipt at a second device; separating the second signal into at least afifth part, a sixth part, a seventh part and an eighth part, each of thefifth, sixth, seventh and eighth parts being frequency diverse at leastin that each is modulated at a different frequency; and facilitatingtransmission of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth parts over thewireline communication medium such that at least one of the fifth,sixth, seventh and eighth parts are received at the first remote antennaunit and at least one of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth parts arereceived at the second remote antenna unit, the first and second remoteantenna units being configured to wirelessly transmit the received oneor more of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth parts to the seconddevice over the wireless communication medium at a second frequency, thesecond frequency being different from the first frequency used towirelessly transmit the first, second, third and fourth parts.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates method of facilitating wireless signaling including:determining a first signal desired for transport to a first device, thefirst signaling being separated into at least a first part, a secondpart, a third part and a fourth part for transmission to a first devicepartially over a wireline communication medium; determining a pluralityof remote antenna units connected to the wireline communication mediumhaving capabilities sufficient to facilitate wirelessly transmitting oneor more of the first, second, third and fourth parts to the firstdevice; and determining at least a first remote antenna unit and asecond remote antenna unit of the plurality of remote antennas units towirelessly transmit one or more of the first, second, third and fourthparts to the first device based on relative wireless communicationscapabilities, the relative wireless communication capabilitiesrepresenting capabilities of each of the plurality of remote antennaunits to wireless communicate with the first device relative.

The method may include determining spatial diversity for each of theplurality of remote antenna units relative to a first location of thefirst device and selecting the first and second remote antenna unitsfrom the plurality of remote antenna units based at least in part onspatial diversity.

The method may include determining spatial diversity by calculating anangular position of each of the plurality of remote antenna unitsrelative to the first location.

The method may include determining the first and second remote antennaunits based at least in part on having related angular positions greaterthan an angular threshold.

The method may include determining beamforming capabilities for each ofthe plurality of remote antenna units relative to a first location ofthe first device such that the first and second remote antenna units areselected based at least in part on beamforming capabilities.

The method may include selecting the first and second remote antennaunits from at least two of the plurality of remote antenna units havingbeamforming capabilities sufficient to facilitate directing wirelesssignaling toward the first location.

The method may include transmitting each of the first, second, third andfourth parts from the at least first and second remote antenna units ata first frequency, the first frequency being different from frequenciesof the first, second, third and fourth parts as transmitted over thewireline communication medium, wherein each of the first, second, thirdand fourth parts are frequency diverse when transmitted over thewireline communication medium.

As supported above, one non-limiting aspect of the present inventioncontemplates system for facilitating wireless signaling including: asignal processor configured for separating a first signal desired fortransport to a first device partially over a wireline communicationmedium into at least first and second parts, the at least first andsecond parts being frequency diverse; and a plurality of remote antennaunits having capabilities sufficient to facilitate wirelesslycommunicating the at least first and second parts to the first device,including capability sufficient to convert the at least first and secondparts to non-frequency diverse wireless signals; and wherein the signalprocessor determines at least a first remote antenna unit and a secondremote antenna unit of the plurality of remote antennas units towirelessly transmit a respective one of the first and second parts basedon relative wireless communications capabilities of the plurality ofremote antenna units.

While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended thatthese embodiments describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather,the words used in the specification are words of description rather thanlimitation, and it is understood that various changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may becombined to form further embodiments of the invention.

1.-100. (canceled)
 101. A method of facilitating wireless signalingcomprising: determining a first signal desired for transport to a firstdevice; separating the first signal into at least a first part and asecond part; and facilitating transmission of the at least first andsecond parts over a wireline communication medium such that at least oneof the at least first and second parts are received at a first remoteantenna unit and at least one of the at least first and second partsother than the at least one of the at least first and second partsreceived at the first remote antenna unit are received at a secondremote antenna unit, the first and second remote antenna units beingconfigured to wirelessly transmit the received one or more of the atleast first and second parts to the first device over a wirelesscommunication medium.
 102. The method of claim 101 further comprisingseparating the first signal such that each of the at least first andsecond parts include a different portion of the first signal, therebyrequiring the first device to combine the at least first and secondparts in order to reconstruct the first signal.
 103. The method of claim101 further comprising transmitting the first and second parts over thewireline communication medium at different frequencies.
 104. The methodof claim 101 further comprising: determining a first location of thefirst device; determining three or more remote antenna units availablewithin the first location to facilitate wirelessly transmitting thefirst and second parts to the first device; and selecting the first andsecond remote antenna units from the three or more remote antenna unitsto facilitate wirelessly transmitting the at least first and secondparts to the first device.
 105. The method of claim 104 furthercomprising determining spatial diversity for each of the three or moreremote antenna units relative to the first location of the first deviceand selecting the first and second remote antenna units from the threeor more remote antenna units based at least in part on the spatialdiversity.
 106. The method of claim 105 further comprising determiningthe spatial diversity by calculating an angular position of each of theplurality of remote antenna units relative to the first location. 107.The method of claim 106 further comprising selecting the first andsecond remote antenna units based at least in part on having relatedangular positions greater than an angular threshold.
 108. The method ofclaim 104 further comprising: determining beamforming capabilities foreach of the three or more antenna units relative to the first location;and selecting the first and second remote antenna units based at leastin part on the beamforming capabilities.
 109. The method of claim 8further comprising selecting the first and second remote antenna unitsfrom the three or more remote antenna units based on having beamformingcapabilities sufficient to facilitate directing wireless signalingtoward the first location.
 110. The method of claim 101 furthercomprising providing beamforming instructions to each of the first andsecond remote antenna units, the beamforming instructions controllingamplitude and phase or delay of wireless signaling emitted therefrom ina manner sufficient to facilitate directing wireless signaling toward afirst location of the first device.
 111. The method claim 110 furthercomprising providing updated beamforming instructions to each of thefirst and second remote antenna units in order to adjust the amplitudeand phase or delay of the wireless signaling based upon movement of thefirst device from the first location to a second location such that thewireless signaling becomes directed toward the second location more sothan the first location.
 112. The method of claim 101 furthercomprising: instructing the first and second remote antenna units totransmit the at least first and second parts at a first frequency;determining a second signal desired for wireless receipt at a seconddevice; separating the second signal into at least a third part and afourth part; and facilitating transmission of the at least third andfourth parts over the wireline communication medium such that at leastone of the at least third and fourth parts are received at the firstremote antenna unit and at least one of the at least third and fourthparts other than the at least one of the at least third and fourth partsreceived at the first remote antenna unit are received at the secondremote antenna unit, the first and second remote antenna units beingconfigured to wirelessly transmit the received one or more of the atleast third and fourth parts to the second device over the wirelesscommunication medium at a second frequency, the second frequency beingdifferent from the first frequency used to wirelessly transmit the atleast first and second parts.
 113. A system for facilitating wirelesssignaling comprising: a plurality of remote antenna units configured towireless transmit signaling received over a wireline communicationsmedium; and a signal processor configured to transmit signaling over thewireline communication medium to the plurality of remote antenna units,the signal processor associated with a non-transitory computer-readablemedium having a plurality of non-transitory instructions operable with aprocessor to facilitate controlling the operation thereof, thenon-transitory instructions being sufficient for: determining a firstsignal desired for transport to a device; multiplexing the first signalinto at least a first part and a second part such that each of the atleast first and second parts are different portions of the first signal;determining one or more of the plurality of remote antenna units havingcapabilities sufficient to facilitate wirelessly communications with thedevice; and transmitting each of the at least first and second parts atdifferent frequencies over the wireline communication medium to one ormore of the remote antennas units capable of wirelessly communicatingwith the device.
 114. The system of claim 113 wherein the non-transitoryinstructions are sufficient for transmitting wireless instructions toeach of the remote antenna units receiving one of the at least first andsecond signal parts, the wireless instructions instructing thecorresponding remote antennas units to wireless transmit the receivedone or more of the at least first and second parts to the device at acommon frequency.
 115. The system of claim 113 wherein thenon-transitory instructions are sufficient for: determining at least afirst and a second remote antenna unit of the plurality of remoteantenna units as having capabilities sufficient to facilitate wirelesscommunications with the device; and transmitting at least one of the atleast first and second parts to the first remote antenna unit and atleast one of the at least first and second parts other than the at leastone of the at least first and second signal parts transmitted to thefirst remote antenna unit to the second remote antenna unit.
 116. Thesystem of claim 115 wherein the non-transitory instructions aresufficient for: determining angular position relative to the device foreach of the remote antenna units having capabilities sufficient tofacilitate wireless communications with the device; and selecting thefirst and second remote antenna units based at least in part on havingrelated angular positions greater than an angular threshold
 117. Thesystem of claim 115 wherein the non-transitory instructions aresufficient for: determining beamforming capabilities for each of theremote antenna units having capabilities sufficient to facilitatewireless communications with the device; and selecting the first andsecond remote antenna units based at least in part on having beamformingcapabilities sufficient for directing wireless signaling toward thedevice.
 118. The system of claim 117 wherein the non-transitoryinstructions are sufficient for providing beamforming instructions toeach of the first and second remote antenna units, the beamforminginstructions controlling amplitude and phase or delay of wirelesssignaling emitted therefrom in a manner sufficient to facilitatedirecting wireless signaling toward a first location determined for thedevice at a first instance in time.
 119. The system of claim 118 whereinthe non-transitory instructions are sufficient for providing updatedbeamforming instructions to each of the first and second remote antennaunits in order to adjust the amplitude and phase or delay of thewireless signaling based upon movement of the device from the firstlocation to a second location at a second instance in time occurringafter the first instance, the updated beamforming instructions directingthe wireless signaling toward the second location more so than the firstlocation.
 120. A non-transitory computer-readable medium havingnon-transitory instructions operable with a processor to facilitatewireless signaling, the non-transitory instructions being sufficient tofacilitate: determining a plurality of signaling paths within a wirelinecommunication medium sufficient to facilitate wireline signaling betweena signal processor and one or more of a first plurality of remoteantenna units; determining a first signal intended for transmission fromthe signal processor to a wireless device; determining wirelesscommunication capabilities for the first plurality of remote antennaunits, the wireless communication capabilities reflecting capabilitiesto facilitate wirelessly communicating with the first wireless device;selecting at least a first remote antenna unit and a second remoteantenna unit of the first plurality of remote antennas units towirelessly communicate with the first wireless device based on thewireless communications capabilities; separating the first signal intoat least a first part and a second part such that each of the at leastfirst and second parts includes a different portion of the first signal;transmitting the first part to the first remote antenna unit over acorresponding one of the paths with instructions sufficient forcontrolling the first remote antenna unit to thereafter wirelesslytransmitting the first part to the device; and transmitting the secondpart to the second remote antenna unit over a different one of the pathswith instructions sufficient for controlling the second remote antennaunit to thereafter wirelessly transmitting the second part to thedevice.